Leicester’s ultimate top ten players ever: Defenders, No. 4 and 3

It is a much more difficult task to come up with a list of Leicester City’s ten greatest ever defenders than it is for goalkeepers not least because there are more to choose from. That is not going to stop us. I started by identifying 50 possible names to go into our top ten which was further whittled down to about 15. Today, numbers four and three.

4. Given the key role he played in Leicester’s most successful period, it is impossible not to include Wes Morgan in our list of the club’s top defenders. Wes joined the Foxes when Nigel Pearson signed him from East Midlands rival Nottingham Forest, for whom he had played over 400 times, in the 2012 January transfer window. By this time he was in his late 20s and had never played in the top-flight. Foxes’ fans won’t need reminding what he went on to achieve at the King Power Stadium. For the record, he made 323 appearances for City and more than half of his 277 league games were in the Premier League.

Given the success the club achieve under his leadership – Championship title, Premier League title and the club’s first FA Cup triumph - It seems a little churlish to list him as only number four on our list. However, although powerful and having a great positional awareness as well as great leadership skills, he also lacked pace and poise on the ball and had the advantage of playing alongside some great players not least Robert Huth and Jonny Evans in defence and Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Ryad Mahrez further forward. What a team that was!

3. At number three on our list is another legendary Leicester centre half Matt Elliott who was one of Martin O’Neill’s shrewd signings joining newly promoted Leicester for a then club record £1.6 million from Oxford United in January 1997. Elliott was about to sign for Southampton before O’Neil, assistant manager John Robertson and coach Steve Walford, copying the methods of Brian Clough, set off - after a midweek FA Cup tie at Filbert Street - to meet the big centre-half and his wife and, in the early hours of the morning, persuaded him to sign for the Foxes (see this video for Matt's own account). It was a gamble to bring Elliott to Filbert Street but boy did it pay off.

In seven years with the club, Matt - a colossus at the back with a surprisingly deft touch on the ball for such a big man and something of a goal scorer to boot - made 290 appearances, all but 46 of his 245 league games played in the Premier League. He was part of a formidable back three often partnering Steve Walsh and Gerry Taggart as a tough City team surprised many by flourishing in the top-flight and performing well in cup competitions. The highlight of his club career were his two headed goals that secured victory over Tranmere in the 2000 League Cup final, the last to be played at the old Wembley.

Matt’s Scottish grandmother also made him eligible for the Tartan Army and he won 18 international caps scoring once. Such was Elliott status that when O’Neil left for Celtic in 2000, he tried to lure the centre half north of the border. Matt stayed at Filbert Street though on improved terms earning wages that the club, hurtling towards administration, could ill-afford.