Ireland boss O’neill recalls ‘an absolute gentleman’
IRELAND manager Martin O’neill has described Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha “an incredible gentleman”.
The Foxes are a club close to O’neill’s heart having managed them from 1995 to 2000 during which he guided the club to two League Cups.
Paying tribute to the chairman, 61, who died in the helicopter crash on Saturday, the 66-year-old said: “He went into the community, he made donations to the universities, donations to the hospitals, and the Leicester people took to him.
GRIEF
“You can see that outpouring of grief at the moment, it’s as genuine as they come, and I think that speaks volumes for the man that we’re talking about.
“This was a normal practice for the owner to come in, park the helicopter in the middle of the pitch and everybody thought it was great.
“The very fact is he was just an incredible gentleman as well, his popularity was far beyond Leicester but Leicester would have taken the bulk of that.
“For the disaster to happen so close to the football club is very difficult to take in at the moment.
It’s a desperate day.”
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha was at the heart of celebrations when Leicester upset the odds to win the Premier League in 2016.
It was a fairytale triumph and one O’neill said Mr Srivaddhanaprabha was at the heart of masterminding.
He added: “The winning of the Premier League a couple of years ago was absolutely phenomenal and the manager has to take great credit for that.
“But let’s be fair, I don’t think any of that would have happened had it not been for the owner.”