Leicester’s ultimate top ten players ever: Strikers, No.6-5

Providing a list of the best strikers is a little easier than doing so for midfielders or defenders in the sense that they can be judged according to how many goals they have scored. That’s not the whole picture of course, but a forward who doesn’t convert chances is unlikely to survive for long. Leicester City have had some great strikers over the years. Today, numbers 5-6. 

6. Arthur Lochhead, number 6 on our list, was signed from Manchester United for a club record fee of £3,300 in 1925. The inside left played 320 games for Leicester between 1925 and 1934, scoring an impressive 114 goals making him the sixth highest scorer in the club’s history. All of Arthur’s goals were in the First Division in the Foxes’ second-best era where he was part of a deadly striking duo with Arthur Chandler. Lochhead later managed Leicester after Peter Hodge’s surprise death in 1934 but the ageing team was relegated at the end of his first season in charge. He resigned two matches into the 1936/37 campaign with the club in some turmoil at board level, returning to Scotland to become a publican. Arthur died in December 1966 at the age of 69.

5.  For younger fans, Gary Lineker will be known for being a football presenter on the BBC and maybe for making controversial political posts on X. For older fans, he will be known for starring for England at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups. Football fans as old as me, meanwhile, will know Gary for wearing the blue and white of Leicester City. Along with a lot of young players, Gary was given his head under the tenure of Jock Wallace. I well remember his debut as a raw 19-year-old on New Year’s Day 1979 in a home match in Division Two against Oldham Athletic. Stuck out on the right wing, he looked less than impressive. 

It wasn’t in fact until the 1981/2 season that Lineker began to excel. Moved to a central position, it quickly became apparent that Leicester had a goal scoring machine on their hands. His 26 goals in the 1982/3 season, with Gordon Milne now in charge, helped to secure promotion to the top-flight and in his last two seasons with the club, Lineker teamed up with Alan Smith and Steve Lynex in a potent strike-force which ensured the club’s survival in the top-flight. In total, Gary played 216 games for the Foxes scoring 103 goals, a phenomenal strike-rate of almost one goal every two games. 

By 1985, Lineker, already an England international, had become hot property. Gary’s contract at Filbert Street came to an end. In those days, prior to the Bosman ruling, clubs could insist upon a transfer fee for players they didn’t want to lose, even if their contract had expired.. League champions Everton offered £500,000 for his services. Leicester wanted over a million. A tribunal split the difference, and Lineker left his hometown club for £800,000 plus a sell-on clause. 

Writing in his recently published autobiography, Gordon Milne thinks the Foxes could have done more to hang on to the player. He also thinks that Everton got Lineker on the cheap. Given that in his only season with Everton, Gary scored 40 goals, was Division One’s leading scorer and, in the Mexico World Cup the following summer, won the Golden Boot for his six goals, Milne has a point. On the other hand, Lineker moved on to Barcelona after a year at Everton and Leicester received another £200,000 as a result of the sell-on clause. A total of £1m for the player was not a bad outcome for the Foxes.

Lineker’s post-Leicester achievements are well known. He finished his career with 329 goals scored in 649 games including – an, at the time, record number of - 48 England strikes. Since retiring, of course, Gary has become the biggest celebrity Leicester City fan. He also fronted a consortium which successfully navigated the club through the travails of administration at the beginning of the twenty-first century. 

More on Thursday.