Thinking about Wes Morgan and that Leicester Season
Right, so, Wes Morgan. Big Wes. The Captain. Every single time I think about Leicester City and that absolutely bonkers 2015-16 season, he’s one of the first fellas that pops into my head. A proper wall at the back, wasn’t he? And a leader, through and through. You could just see it, plain as day.
So, a good while back, I got this daft idea. I thought to myself, I’m going to really get to the bottom of what made him so special. Not just, you know, watch the goals on repeat. I wanted to sort of… well, I don’t know, really understand the guts of it. Maybe, just maybe, I could even learn a thing or two. Not for turning pro, mind you, my knees wouldn’t last five minutes! But just for… well, for life in general, or even for the Sunday morning kickabout I have with my mates down at the local park.
My Little ‘Wes Morgan Deep Dive’
So, I kicked off this little personal project. I sat myself down and rewatched a ton of those Leicester games from that unbelievable season. And I mean, I was really focusing on Morgan. How he got himself in the right place. When he’d lunge in for a big challenge. How he’d be barking orders or encouraging the other lads. It’s one thing seeing it all unfold live or on the telly highlights, but trying to properly pick it apart? Whole different kettle of fish, that.
- I’d be there, pausing the screen, hitting rewind, watching a single tackle about fifteen times. Trying to see the magic.
- I even had a go at copying his defensive stance right there in my living room. The missus definitely thought I was finally losing my marbles.
- Then, the real test. I tried to, you know, bring a bit of that ‘Morgan spirit’ to our casual Sunday game. Before one match, I actually tried to give a bit of a passionate, rousing speech. All about belief, fighting for every ball, sticking together. Had my serious face on and everything.
Well, That Didn’t Exactly Pan Out
And how did all that effort go? Well, let’s just put it this way: I am no Wes Morgan. My ‘in-depth analysis’ of his defensive genius mostly just left me scratching my head and thinking, “Cor, that is a lot harder than it looks on TV.” He had this unbelievable timing and raw strength that you just can’t teach or bottle up.
And the big speech? Oh, dear. The speech. Just imagine it: me, probably a bit red in the face, trying my best to channel a Premier League-winning captain, and my mates are just sort of looking at each other, then back at me, probably wondering if I’d had one too many the night before. Then one of ’em, old Dave, just deadpan says, “Alright then, Churchill, can we just try not to let a goal in during the first five minutes this week?” Point taken, Dave, point taken.
It was pretty funny, looking back. But it properly made me realize something important. You can look up to someone, you can definitely try to learn bits from them, but you can’t just wake up one day and be them. Morgan’s leadership, his whole commanding presence on the pitch, it wasn’t just a list of instructions he was following from a manual. It was all those years of graft, his personal journey, the whole unique vibe of that specific Leicester team. It was like a perfect storm, really, everything coming together just right.
What I Actually Took Away From My Little Experiment
So, no, my little experiment didn’t magically turn me into a defensive rock or a charismatic leader. Big surprise, I know. But what it did do was give me a much, much deeper appreciation for what Wes Morgan and that Leicester team actually pulled off. It’s dead easy to sit on your sofa, shouting at the telly, “Oh, he should have done this,” or “Why didn’t he clear that?” But when you actually try, even in your own small, slightly ridiculous way, to get a feel for the pressure and the sheer skill involved, it’s properly humbling.
It sort of reminds me of this fella, Kevin. This was years ago, long before all the Leicester madness. I was stuck in this awful temp job, shifting boxes in a massive warehouse. Really grim stuff. My supervisor, Kevin, he was a small, quiet bloke. Not built like a tank like Wes Morgan, not by a long shot. But he had this uncanny, calm way of getting everyone to pull their weight and work together, especially when things got really hectic, like when a massive lorry would turn up late on a Friday afternoon with a surprise delivery. He never raised his voice, never lost his cool. He just led by example, got stuck in himself, and somehow, we’d always, always get the job done. He had his own kind of captaincy, if you know what I mean.
And I reckon that’s the main thing, isn’t it? Wes Morgan was Wes Morgan. He was absolutely perfect for that Leicester team, at that absolutely perfect moment in time. Trying to just copy him is a bit of a fool’s game. But appreciating what he did? And maybe trying to find your own ‘Kevin’ or your own ‘Wes’ inside yourself, in your own unique way, for whatever you’re doing? Yeah, there’s definitely something to that. So, hats off to Big Wes. A true one-off. My little project made me see just how incredibly special that whole Leicester story was, even more than I already did.
