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Celtic's old foes Atletico Madrid stand between Leicester City and a Champions League semi final and who would bet against the English midlands side getting to the final in Cardiff now if a bit of luck against the Spaniards followed by a favourable draw in the last four were to come their way.
In 1971, Leicester were promoted back to the precursor to the Premier League which was Football League Division One, and they won the Charity Shield for the only time. Unusually, due to double winners Arsenal's commitments in European competition, Division Two winners Leicester were invited to play FA Cup runners up Liverpool beating them 1–0thanks to a goal by Steve Whitworth. Jimmy Bloomfield was appointed for the new season as manager, and his team remained in the First Division for his tenure. No period since Bloomfield has seen the club remain in the top division for so long. Leicester reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1973–74.
Former Scotland international Frank McLintock, a noted player for seven years for Leicester in a successful period from the late Fifties to the mid Sixties, succeeded Jimmy Bloomfield in 1977. City were relegated at the end of the 1977–78 season and McLintock resigned. Jock Wallace [ previously at Rangers ] resumed the tradition of successful Scottish managers (after Peter Hodge and Matt Gillies) by steering Leicester to the Division Two championship in 1980. Unfortunately, Wallace was unable to keep Leicester in Division One, but they reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1982. Under Wallace, one of City's most famous home-grown players, Gary Lineker, emerged into the first team squad.
Jimmy Bloomfield might be one of the few managers to ever design a kit as in 1976 he combined with the Leicester based Admiral design team to produce a famous Foxes kit that is of its time but remembered for its quirky qualities nevertheless.
Frank Worthington
Leicester wore Bloomfield's design from 1976 until 1979 before they reverted to a more traditional kit for the second season of Jock Wallace's tenure of discipline (he used to make Foxes players run up man made hills after successfully training his Rangers team on the Gullane Sand Dunes) before rejoining Admiral in 1983 for a five year run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mWcG8bXvN4
Wallace and 'The Hill'
If Leicester City were better known for football fashion rather than on field success in the late 1970's we can always celebrate a more modest time at the then Filbert Street club when just being in the top tier of English football was success enough and European runs, megabuck owners and foreign managers was something for the bigger clubs abroad. Leicester at that time had the mercurial Frank Worthington, the gritty Dennis Rofe and a teenage Gary Lineker was emerging in the Foxes reserves as a goalscorer of note [although Jock Wallace still grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and bawled in his ear for perceived lack of effort after the future England international scored two for the Leicester City second team].
Another youngster to feel the wrath of Big Jock was a young Mark Warburton who later recalled: "My parents were with me when I signed for Leicester and Jock Wallace was as nice as pie asking my Mum and Dad to 'call him Jock not Mr Wallace' and he gave them a tour of Filbert Street and really made them feel welcome. On my first day training as a 17 year old I passed him in the corridor at Filbert Street and said 'Good Morning Jock'; cue a back hander and a slap across the back of the head followed by a roar of 'Hey son it's Mr Wallace or gaffer here, nae first names!!' To say I was shocked was an understatement".
It might also have been a time when somebody who could help Leicester City Football Club to the English League title might have been given time rather than the sack as in the case of a certain Mr Ranieri, in fact they would probably have built a statue outside the old Filbert Street ground to such a manager.
However, since the Italian Ranieri's departure Leicester have been Lazarus like and now stand on the brink of the sort of European success Jock Wallace went back to Rangers to try and achieve!
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