Leicester stalwart Mike Stowell opens up on his 18 years coaching at the club

All good things must come to an end, and for coach Mike Stowell it has been an incredible ride over nearly two decades at Leicester City.

Stowell experienced more in his 18 years of almost unbroken service than anyone in the club’s history and is the most decorated coach Leicester have ever had, with a Premier League title win, FA Cup and Community Shield triumphs on his CV.

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Despite the way it ended — with relegation and his departure — it is apparent over the course of an interview with The Athletic that Stowell retains his passion for coaching and hopes to return to the game as quickly as possible.

Stowell worked under 13 different managers at Leicester, all of whom valued his honesty and professionalism, but new boss Enzo Maresca wanted a fresh start with his own staff and Stowell and fellow coach Adam Sadler, who had been at the club since 2014, both left.

It was a sad end to an incredible stint of service, but Stowell isn’t bitter.

“The new manager wants new staff of his own; that’s how football works,” Stowell, 58, says. “Sadly, I had two years left on my contract. I wasn’t planning on going, I wasn’t planning on retiring and that’s not what I’m going to do.

“I might have to wait and bide my time, but I’m fit and healthy. I love my job. I love football. I’ve only ever known football. I don’t know anything else.

“I’ve had two football families in Leicester and Wolverhampton Wanderers (where Stowell spent 21 years of his playing career). The staff and the fans are like your brothers and sisters and the players are like your children, trying to nurture them.

“There have been highs and obviously lows, but it was a good run at Leicester.”

Stowell was an almost ever-present during the most eventful period in the club’s history. As well as the titles and trophies, there were two play-off heartaches, two relegations, a Champions League quarter-final and a Europa Conference League semi-final. There was also the tragic helicopter crash in 2018 that killed the club’s former owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

“In my time at Leicester it has never been a case of sitting comfortably in mid-table, winning some, losing some, tick on and have a nice cup run and that’s the end of it,” he says. “We have always been scrapping or fighting for promotion and titles. We’ve had some drama.”

However, Stowell nearly never joined the club. His straight-talking, which endeared him to countless managers over the years, almost cost him his first appointment as goalkeeper coach under Craig Levein in 2005.

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“Rob Kelly was assistant to Craig at Leicester and I had known Rob since my Wolves days,” Stowell says. “I went for an interview and I nearly blew it. Craig was a strong manager and I remember having a good chat and I felt it had gone really well.

“Then he asked about how strong I would be and I said, ‘Oh, I will stick up for my ‘keeper if I think you’re wrong’.

“I didn’t think I had said anything wrong. Rob then rung me up and said, ‘Bloody hell. Craig said you were a bit strong and hot-headed. He wasn’t sure you were ready for us.’”

But Stowell got the job and six months later Levein was sacked with Leicester struggling in the Championship and Stowell stepped in as a caretaker manager (a job he had six times in total) alongside Kelly.

“I was really the assistant to Rob. Then we had a great run of results leading to Rob getting the job permanently and me becoming the assistant manager.”

Stowell was sacked the next season (along with Kelly) but he wasn’t away for long. “We were sacked with four games to go and Nigel Worthington came in,” he says. “We thought we had left the club safe, which we were with the points we had, but they panicked. Nigel was then gone at the end of the season and they appointed Martin Allen.”

Allen reappointed Stowell as the club’s goalkeeper coach, but the new manager didn’t last long either.

Neither did his successor, Gary Megson, which resulted in Stowell’s second stint as caretaker.

Then under Ian Holloway, Leicester were relegated to League One and Stowell thought he was gone once again, but Nigel Pearson stepped in and led the club back to the Championship in a season that saw Stowell work with seven senior goalkeepers.

“Nigel used to come and watch virtually all my warm-up sessions because he loved watching the goalkeepers work,” Stowell says. “Nigel always asked for opinions and valued my honesty.”

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In fact, all of Leicester’s subsequent managers then retained him as an integral part of their backroom teams: Paulo Sousa, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Pearson a second time, Claudio Ranieri, Craig Shakespeare, Claude Puel and Brendan Rodgers.

Key to Stowell’s longevity was his special relationship cultivated over 11 years with Kasper Schmeichel.

“I found him a dream to work with and I am very proud of everything he has achieved,” says Stowell.

“We clicked straight away due to our work ethics. He kept me on my toes and I kept him on his toes. I could see from day one that he wanted to be challenged and all he wanted to do was play in the Premier League. So I challenged him every day.”

Stowell would always integrate all the young keepers in their training sessions as well, and that brought out the showman in Schmeichel.

“I don’t think any other club do that because they all find it strange that I work with sometimes up to 10 ‘keepers in a group,” he says. “Kasper loved it. It brought out the showman (in him) and it used to get him switched on instantly because people were watching and you can’t slack. You have to do it.

“We had a great time and shared all those memories together. I class him as a close friend.”

When Schmeichel left to join Nice last summer, it left a big hole in the squad with Leicester losing not only a leader but their long-serving first-choice goalkeeper as well.

Danny Ward was chosen in goal at the start of last season but the Welshman was eventually dropped for Daniel Iversen. Stowell has a lot of sympathy for Ward, though.

“It was always going to be tough for Danny,” Stowell says. “He was a great No 2, so supportive of Kasper. I’ve been at clubs where I’ve seen No 2s and No 3s not support the No 1; Ward always did.  I have to say, in his defence, that it was a difficult time to come in (as No 1).

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“Brendan wanted to strengthen the squad but couldn’t because of the financial issues and then we went into the season and it was a tough time. Not just for Danny — the whole team was suffering.

“It was a shame really and it came to the point where Brendan felt there was a change needed (in goal) to freshen things up.”

So was Schmeichel’s departure a big factor in Leicester’s struggles last season?

“We thought it was one of the factors, but also we had injuries to JJ (James Justin) and Ricardo (Pereira). There were some players in and out of form. It was a culmination of things.”

Ever since relegation was confirmed there has been a forensic analysis of what went wrong and how a team that had been challenging for Champions League qualification suddenly struggled so badly.

In fact, Stowell reveals that after Leicester had turned things around after enduring their worst start to a Premier League season before the World Cup, they were still optimistic of a top-10 finish.

Rodgers and his staff sat down to discuss the rest of the season at their Abu Dhabi training camp in November and there wasn’t any fear of relegation. They had climbed to 13th and were looking up the table, not down.

“We were talking about making the top eight. I’m still scratching my head about how we didn’t stay in the league. I didn’t see it coming at all until Brendan went and I’m thinking ‘We are running out of games here and nothing is changing’.”

After Rodgers was dismissed at the start of April, Leicester turned to Stowell for the sixth time as caretaker (along with Sadler) to steady the ship. The pair had stepped in for one game between Puel and Rodgers in 2019 and were victorious. This time they lost both matches in charge before Dean Smith arrived with his staff as interim coach. The required bounce didn’t arrive.

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“It’s a tragedy that the club has gone down with the players that we did because, even though Brendan was looking to freshen things up, they were top players. Everyone’s got to take responsibility for it.”

Relegation was a low point and the end of Stowell’s journey, but there have certainly been enormous highs along the way.

“It has been an incredible time,” he says. “The promotion, the great escape, winning the Premier League title, stepping in with Shakey (Shakespeare) to win the second leg of the Sevilla game to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, what a night!

“The FA Cup win meant so much to everybody. The next day I was cutting the lawn in my back garden when my neighbour popped his head above the fence. He said, ‘I’ve been a Leicester City fan for four years. I never thought I’d see the day won the FA Cup.’ He said it brought him to tears. The other neighbour stuck their head over the fence and thanked me as well.

“That’s why you are in football, for those moments for good people. You aren’t in it for money. I played football to play football; I coach to coach.”

Stowell is now hoping for a swift return to the game. “I don’t need a sabbatical. I don’t need a holiday. I’m ready to work. Hopefully, someone out there will give me a chance. I’ve got to get out there and keep living the dream because it’s a fantastic job.”

(Top photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

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