Interview: Alan Smith And The Leicester City Years

Alan Smith has become a household name across generations, having been one of England’s top strikers in the 1980s and 1990s before transitioning into media as a commentator on Premier League matches for Sky Sports, as well as making his mark in the gaming world through FIFA. In the 1980s, Smith made the move to Leicester City from non-league football and, following the club’s promotion to the top flight of English football, wore an Admiral kit for the remainder of his Leicester City career. We had the opportunity to sit down with him to chat about football and iconic kits. Catch the interview on our social channels. 

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In 1982-83 you made the jump from non-league football to Leicester City, which you don't see that much nowadays, was it hard to adjust to professional football? 

AS: “It was an adjustment, yeah. One minute you're playing in the Southern League Midland Division, which was a decent standard, and I was playing with a few ex-pros, but all of a sudden, the thing that I noticed straight away was the full-time training, opposed to a Tuesday and a Thursday night, you physically had to get used to it. You’re also playing with and against better players, so you notice the difference in quality straight away. 

It wasn’t too hard as I was always fit, but I suppose it the added intensity as much as anything, you know, everything's done quicker. Some people do take longer than others, but thankfully I think I did come to terms with it fairly quickly. 

It was a bit strange at the start as manager Jock Wallace signed me and then left after a few weeks, he went up back up to Scotland, to Motherwell. So, I'm thinking at that stage, ‘How's this going to affect me?’ ‘Am I in trouble’. Luckily, Gordon Milne came in and he cleared out most of Jock's lads. The Scottish boys.” 

Did you break into the first team in your first season? 

AS: “Yes, pretty much straight away. The reserves were on one pitch, playing against Northampton reserves and the first team on the adjoining pitch playing against their first team. Gordon Milne called me over and said. ‘Alan, you're going to play for the first team in the Second half'. So I went across and joined Gary Lineker in attack and scored a hat trick in this preseason friendly. So, from then on, I was with the first team and started the first game of the season against Charlton Athletic.” 

What was it like to play with Gary Lineker? 

AS: “I knew who he was before I joined. He was a local boy, and I’d seen a piece on Football Focus about him. I think he was when he was serving the vegetables at his dad's market in Leicester, he was making waves at that time. He'd been in the first team maybe 18 months or so and it was great actually great to start playing with him and form a good partnership fairly quickly. I think some partnerships take more work than others where you have to get used to the movement and what they're going to do. But with Gary, you always knew he was going to be hanging on the last line, using his great pace, always looking for the half chance. 

I played with my back to goal and took up different positions, we suited each other so that helped me settle in quicker than anything really. The fact that you feel comfortable with your strike partner.” 

In your first season you got promoted to the top division and that's when you start wearing the beautiful Admiral pinstripe kits. Was it a big jump up the First Division which would be the Premier League nowadays? 

AS: “It didn’t start that great. I think it I got dropped after about eight games, something like that. I was struggling to come to terms with it and Gordon Milne said he thought it was better for me to be brought out of the fray and to watch things from the side. Sometimes you can learn a little bit more. He was right. When I went back in, I managed to get some goals and get going and build my confidence. Those first few games you think ‘am I going to be good enough for this level?’. 

I never forget we played West Ham one night. It was a midweek game at Upton Park and the morning after I've opened the paper and there's a huge picture of me and Trevor Brooking tussling for the ball. I looked up to him. He was a lovely, elegant player and that's when it hit home that I was actually in the top flight and playing against these fantastic players. 

It was a great thrill in the first few months when you're walking onto the pitch at the start of the game, looking across to the other half of the pitch and you're seeing these household names and faces. But once the whistle goes it's just another game when you're concentrating on the game.” 

In those Admiral Leicester years are there any special goals or memories in the kit that you can think of that come to mind? 

AS: “I mean, I always remember Bob Hazel. They didn't have a size big enough for him and he had to wear plasters on his nipples to stop them scratching. He used to moan to the kit man, ‘can't you get me a bigger size?’. 

In 1985-86, We beat Man United in Admiral kits 3-0 at Filbert Street. I scored two and Gary McAllister got one, and I'll never forget it because Ron Atkinson was the manager of Man United and he locked them in the dressing room for about an hour afterwards, giving them a good old rollicking. To score against scored two against United, you know Brian Robson was playing and a few other, you know, really big players. To beat Man United 3-0 at Filbert Street, that that was a great moment.” 

While we’re on the kits let’s talk about the away Admiral shirt from ‘83-85, the green pinstripe. It's a bit of a cult classic now. What did the team think of the kit of the time? 

AS: “Yeah, I remember the green shirt. It's a bit of an acquired taste, isn't it? I mean, I can't remember what we said when we saw it. When I see that kit for some reason I think of Andy Feeley who was a teammate of ours, he was a real rough, tough, you know, no nonsense defender. 

I'm not sure whether we've got any many good results in it because.” 

The story is that you didn’t win this kit and the manager and the players were adamant they needed to change kit. You actually ended up wearing a red kit which was the same design as the England national team. 

AS: “OK yeah, yeah, that sounds about right, actually. I mean we struggled to win away from home whatever kit we were wearing to be fair.” 

You’ve done so much in the game and then you've gone on to become an iconic commentator. Did you have a feeling that was always going to be the case commentary was your root or was management on the cards? 

AS: “No, neither. I knew I didn't want to do management. Wasn't cut out for it wasn't particularly interested in like coaching and the tactical side of things. I could follow tactics, you know, if the manager wanted me to do a certain thing.  

On the media side, I would never have thought that I would have gone into commentary but always wanted to do writing. I'd had a good education and thought it would be quite nice because no ex-footballers did their own writing. They usually speak to somebody, a ghost writer, for articles in the paper.  

I started going to games and writing pieces first for the Evening Standard and then for the Telegraph and I did the Telegraph for 20 years, and alongside that was my Sky career.  

Aswell as that for a good six or seven years, I was doing Soccer Saturday and I took part in the Monday night show, which is a lot of different things. One day one of the match directors said. Do you fancy a go at co-commentating? I wasn’t sure I was cut out for that, but he said. ‘Have a go and see how see how it does go’. I've been doing it ever since. I would never, never have thought in a million years that my kind of personality was suited to television.”