Leicester’s ultimate top ten players ever: Midfielders, No. 1

Leicester have been well served by midfield schemers over the years. Our list of the top ten continues today with number 1.

John Duncan, variously known as Johnny or by his nickname ‘Tokey’, is undoubtedly worth a place at the top of our list of greatest ever Foxes’ midfielders (indeed, he is probably close to the top ten greatest ever Leicester players). Added to that, he also had a distinguished three-year stint as a manager at Filbert Street. Signed from Raith Rovers by Peter Hodge (a former manager at the Scottish club who knew Johnny from his time there), Duncan played 295 times for Leicester over eight seasons (five of them in the top-flight) between 1922 and 1930 scoring 95 goals. He was the creative lynch pin, and captain, of a Foxes squad that flourished in Division One with finishes of seventh, third, second and eighth between 1925 and 1930, the second-best era in the history of the club He was a leadership figure on and off the pitch insisting, for instance, that when Hodge was replaced in 1926 by Willie Orr, the club persist with the former’s sophisticated passing game. 

Johnny’s period as a player for the Foxes ended abruptly in 1930 as a result of a dispute with the club who refused his request to be allowed to run a pub (the Turk’s Head opposite the prison on Welford Road) whilst continuing to play. He opted to leave Filbert Street. The City board insisted upon retaining his registration, so he was unable to play for any other professional club. As well as continuing to run his business, Duncan played some local football and was a founding member of the Leicester City Supporters’ Club. 

Remarkably, 16 years later, the club turned to him to become manager and build the club up after the Second World War. He served for three years with City in the Second Division leading the team out at Wembley for the club’s first ever FA Cup Final against, then mighty, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Johnny was a deep thinker about the game. Don Revie - later to be a legendary manager of Leeds United and not so legendary manager of England – was signed by Duncan for Leicester and such was his influence that Revie devoted a whole chapter in his autobiography to his former manager. He wrote in it that: ‘Until you have heard Johnny Duncan talk about soccer then your football education is sadly lacking’. Elsie, Revie’s wife, was Duncan’s niece. 

Johnny was sacked in October 1949 after another dispute with the City board, this time over transfer policy. With his wife, he continued to run the Turk’s Head which became popular with professional sport’s people in the county as well as members of the national sporting media such as John Arlott, David Coleman and Jimmy Hill. Johnny passed away, at the age of 70, in 1966. The pub was demolished in 1971 to make way for a hospital car park.

 Tomorrow, the full list and honourable mentions.