A nice little Bank Holiday read

One to bring a tear to Nev's eye.

A Great Article courtesy of These Football Times, you'll have to follow the link to read the whole piece.

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/08/27/jamie-vardy-and-riyad-mahrez-the-perfect-partners-never-destined-for-the-top/

Leicester City’s head of recruitment, Steve Walsh, cast a steely gaze over the Stade Océane. After travelling to northern France on his latest scouting quest, it seemed only right to begin his search in Normandy at Le Havre AC; the club’s famed academy having become something of a hotbed for young talent over recent years.

Having struck gold in the country’s second division not 18 months earlier, when the Foxes prized Anthony Knockaert away from Guingamp, Walsh was confident in his ability to pluck yet another nugget from lower echelons of French football. What he eventually unearthed, however, proved to be the rarest of gems.

Walsh exited the ground that evening with a spring in his step, the sparkle in his eye still gleaming. Not because his initial target, Ryan Mendes, had particularly dazzled, but because it was the first time he had the privilege of watching Riyad Mahrez play.

Upon his return to the Midlands, Walsh was adamant that his employers must sign Mahrez, a man who, only 48 hours prior, hadn’t even registered on their radar. Manager Nigel Pearson and the rest of his coaching staff began to watch extensive video footage and, although impressed, couldn’t quite see what their colleague was eulogising about. Where they saw a scrawny winger sporting a blonde-tinted fringe and merely producing the odd stepover, Walsh saw magic. Nonetheless, the club moved for the midfielder in hope.

Mahrez was duly signed in January 2013 for £400,000, with his initial remit limited to supplying competition for first-choice wingers Knockaert and Lloyd Dyer. It made sense at the time; Leicester were sat atop the Championship table and looked well on course for their first stint back in the Premier League for a decade. The French-Algerian ostensibly needed time to settle into his new surroundings and there was no need to upset the apple cart by throwing him into the club’s starting XI hastily.

Mahrez has always been an introverted character and the move away from his homeland proved to be no different. He’d never even heard of Leicester City; his only previous knowledge of the Midlands metropolis came in the form of their rugby-playing counterparts, Leicester Tigers. Other than Knockaert, he seemed to have very little common ground with any of his new teammates, not least the loud, bubbly, energetic Jamie Vardy.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, Vardy’s rise to stardom is a well-documented one. After being released by boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday aged 15, the striker cut his teeth on park pitches in England’s Sunday leagues. He worked in a carbon fibre plant and made a living through producing prosthetic limbs. Weekends were when he’d come alive, hassling and harrying defenders into mistakes, chasing down lost causes and rifling driven shots beyond the reach of keepers, all for the measly reward of £30-a-week. Pocket money.

Charlie Carmichael @CharlieJC93