Inside The Dressing Room: Cottee's Foxes Highlights
Alongside presenter Dan Bates, the former Foxes forward speaks for over an hour about how he came to sign for Leicester and become a key member of Martin O’Neill’s cup-winning side.
This episode, along with all previous ones, are available to listen to for free on LCFC.com or any of your usual podcast sources such as iTunes and Spotify. Here are a few highlights to whet your appetite…
Reflecting on his time at City
Tony Cottee said: “When I signed for the Club back in 1997, it was such an unexpected bonus to leave Malaysia, where I was playing and I’d sort of been completely forgotten. Martin O’Neill, being the man that he was, took a chance on me. And to come to the Club, have just over three years there and achieve what I did and to go through what I did, not just individually, but with all my fantastic team-mates was just a real bonus near the end of my career that I never expected.”
Parker the joker
Tony Cottee said: “We had so many characters. I think the one straight away on arrival that you thought was a really funny boy was Garry Parker. Parks was driving up from Oxford to Leicester every day and then he lost his driving licence so he had a young friend of his driving him around. I was living in Essex and my wife was pregnant with twins, my daughter was at school and I had moved around so much that I didn’t want to affect my family and thought I’d commute from Essex to Leicester. I’d meet Garry Parker in the morning at Northampton services to do the last bit of the journey together and he was just a really funny boy. I remember when we played Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Cup, we were standing there waiting for the suitcases to come off the carousel and Parks decided he would jump in one side and go round the back where the people were putting the cases on and then come out as if he was a case and just snuggled up on the conveyor belt. You would get arrested now for doing things like that!”
O’Neill’s management style
Tony Cottee said: “Martin was great but he was different to any other manager I’d ever had. When you think I’d worked with the likes of John Lyall, Howard Kendall, Harry Redknapp, Bobby Robson at England level, I really had some good managers, I was fortunate over the years. And then you come across Martin and I think you have to very quickly work out what he’s all about. I certainly did that very early on. I thought this guy is the type of manager that if you’re one of his favourites, like Gups (Steve Guppy), Emile Heskey or Neil Lennon, he was purring all over those guys, saying how brilliant they were and a couple of times they hadn’t played well and he was telling them how well they’d played. I had to work out what he was doing, he was using his management skills.
"And then on the other hand, if you weren’t in the team, which I wasn’t, he would be very strict and severe on you. I remember a couple of times in the morning you’d walk towards the manager and say ‘morning boss’ and he’d walk straight past me. He wouldn’t acknowledge me, he wouldn’t say hello to me and the whole point of that was: ‘Look, when you get in my team, I’ll talk to you. If you’re not in my team or you’re injured, I’m not interested'. It was a very harsh environment but once I got in the team and started banging the goals in, he was one of those managers that you could pretty much do what you want, he let you have a day off if necessary, he couldn’t do enough for you once you proved to him that you were doing the business on the pitch for him. I thoroughly enjoyed working under Martin and just had some great times.”
The best player Cottee played with at Leicester?
Tony Cottee said: “Muzzy Izzet was probably the most talented footballer amongst all the players that we had, Muzzy could do everything. He was such a slight player as well, he wasn’t stocky like me or tall like Walshy (Steve Walsh) or Matt [Elliott], but he had so much skill and the flicks and the runs, the finishes and the technique that he had, probably made him the most talented. And then you look at Emile as well as a fantastic centre forward who brought everything to his game when he was in his pomp at Leicester, so it’s a tough question, but I would probably go for Muzzy as my top footballer. He did his talking on the pitch but he gave as good as he got in the dressing room. When he had to say something, he said what he had to say.”
His favourite strike partner?
Tony Cottee said: “I believe the partnership me and Heskey had up front was as good as any on our day. I was very much coming towards the end of my career and he was just starting his, so you had the youngster who was looking to learn everything and then you had the oldie who knew everything but couldn’t run around anymore and that was the problem! So I pulled Emile to one side and said 'you’ve got to do all the running for me and you’ve got to batter these defenders around' and to be fair he did. He was an exceptional player, we had a really good understanding. I knew what he was going to do, he knew what I was going to do and we really complemented each other.”
Most memorable moments
Tony Cottee said: “Winning the League Cup against Tranmere immediately springs to mind. For me to get that elusive winners' medal was so unexpected. I never expected to win a trophy at Wembley with Leicester and coming off the back of losing to Spurs the year before, that was something that was really special for me personally. I think my two semi-finals against Sunderland, where I scored two goals at the Stadium of Light and then of course the equalising goal at Filbert Street that got us to Wembley in ’99, that was a great season for me. And then to win the League Cup and get Player of the Year as well, was something I was very proud of.
"But I think the one single moment for me that kickstarted not just my Leicester career, but just my career in general and got me back on track and gave me such pleasure is Man Utd. It's not just me but the thousands of Leicester fans that were there and the fans that still come up to me and go ‘what about your goal at Old Trafford’ and that is the one defining moment for me. I was out of the team, I went out on loan to Birmingham, it wasn’t happening for me and then all of a sudden I think that goal told me that I could still score at the highest level. It gave me the confidence to, over the next few years, do what I did for the Football Club. It was an incredible game, we throughly deserved to win the match 1-0. I’d love to have a pound for every time a Leicester fan said ‘I was there that day’. It seemed like there were 30,000 Leicester fans at Old Trafford! But I think we’ll all remember that day because it’s the last time we won there so it’s great memories for me.”
Inside The Dressing Room: Episode 3 - Tony Cottee
Premier League legend and former Foxes striker Tony Cottee talks us through his three years at Filbert Street and the dressing room characters of that famous City side.