Five Things We Learned From Huth's Podcast Appearance
The German centre-back, who lifted the Premier League title with the Foxes in 2016, joined hosts Matt Elliott and Gerry Taggart – both legendary former City defenders in their own right – to talk through his life in football inside the Champions Club at King Power Stadium.
Available monthly on Spotify, iTunes, LCFC.com and YouTube, Leicester's The Place will include feature-length conversations with some of the most celebrated figures in the Club's history.
In this pilot episode, Huth discussed working for José Mourinho at Chelsea, Gareth Southgate's managerial techniques at Middlesbrough, his magnificent header at Tottenham Hotspur in 2016, that party at Jamie Vardy's place and City's UEFA Champions League run – plus much more!
After the launch of episode one, here's some of our favourite bits from the chat with Huth...
'The professionalism went through the roof' – Mourinho's Chelsea arrival
"The expectation and the toughness that came with him was another level. Claudio [Ranieri] was tough too. He had an Italian coaching team and they were all old-school Italian. They were fitness fanatics. Every day was fitness work. José then came in and he completely changed the way we trained and prepared. Everything was prepared in advance. You knew the training schedule, which sounds stupid now because everyone does it, but 15 years ago there was no sports science or anything. The professionalism went through the roof. All the players were like: ‘This is amazing’. It was revolutionary at the time."
'He came all the way down from Middlesbrough to meet me' – Southgate's pitch
"I had a few opportunities to go to different clubs and he was the only manager who took time out to meet me in London. He came down to see me. There was a few London clubs interested in signing me and they didn’t make that effort. He came all the way down from Middlesbrough to meet with me for an hour. He told me his idea for the next how many years. I thought: ‘That’s decent. If I’m going to invest my time into you, then that’s the way I expect it to go’. From that moment I went up and signed."
'Sometimes a smash and grab is a better feeling' – Scoring and winning at Spurs
"That was a really tough game, but we toughed it out. It was a smash and grab and I’m not ashamed at all to say that to be honest. It felt pretty great afterwards in the changing room! We had drawn games over Christmas and New Year, so it was great to get back winning. We didn’t really look back from that moment. I can still hear the ‘urgh’ noise [when he scored at White Hart Lane]. Sometimes a smash and grab is a better feeling than playing well and winning 4-0."
'We were all thinking at that point that it was a bad idea!' – Filming the Vardy party
"It didn’t start off great did it?! We had the camera guys filming just in case we did get it tough. We were all thinking at that point that it was a bad idea! We’d been arguing [beforehand] saying: ‘We can’t let a camera team in just in case we do it!’ They were there filming us and we’re sitting there with our heads in our hands [when Spurs were winning 2-0]! It was like: ‘Thanks for coming, back to work tomorrow!’ All of a sudden Chelsea got one goal back and then another. The final whistle went and you’ve all seen the pictures!"
'European teams didn't know what to do with us' – City's Champions League adventure
"We brought something different to the table. We were still a little bit old school. We put it wide and got a ball into the box. Certainly at home, people didn't know what to do with us. At that time, it was all about playing out and you could see it on the defenders' faces. They hadn't seen this before. In the group stages, it was pretty comfortable in most games. I still think, had we scored a little earlier against Atlético Madrid [in the quarter-finals], we could have come back. They were on the ropes. They were bringing defenders on and all sorts. They were worried."
Watch the podcast in full...
Robert Huth | Being At Vardy's Party! | Leicester's The Place
Leicester City's Premier League title-winning hero Robert Huth is the first guest on a new free podcast series – Leicester's The Place – hosted by Foxes icons Matt Elliott and Gerry Taggart.