How Pearson drove Kasper to success
COMFORTABLY snuggled up in bed at the back of his Mercedes van while his driver takes the wheel, Kasper Schmeichel appears to have the work-life balance just right. At the age of 28 and after years of trying, the Leicester City keeper is living the dream like his famous dad Peter. This is Schmeichel’s first full season in the Barclays Premier League and he’s proud to have achieved it without uprooting his Danish fiancee Stine and two children Max, 4, and Isabella, 2.
It means a 180-mile round trip from his home in Alderley Edge, Cheshire to the east Midlands most days. If he’s feeling chipper, he drives himself in an Audi S8 with a personalised number plate celebrating his dad’s 1999 Treble win with Manchester United.
But if his two children have given him a sleepless night or he feels he needs his batteries recharging in order to be at his best in training, a £45,000 Mercedes Benz Viano sits in the garage with a driver, paid out of Kasper’s pocket, on call. In the back, the seats recline to an almost flat bed complete with a super-soft suede duvet and mattress. There is a large television and a reading light for further relaxation.
‘It is a bit of a commute but not too bad,’ says Schmeichel. ‘ I actually really enjoy driving, I find it relaxes me but sometimes I do have someone who takes me. It is a very common thing that players do, to live away from their clubs. You have families and if they are settled somewhere, I don’t see any reason they should uproot everything just for you.
‘I have done it for many years, I did at Leeds, at Notts County. I don’t use the bed that often but if you have had a lot of games and you want to get some extra rest you can use it.’
Schmeichel and Leicester will need all their energy at lunchtime today for a match against Newcastle United that could go a long way to settling their Premier League future. Nigel Pearson’s team have been bottom of the table for much of the seasonn and were seven points fromrom safety after a 4-3 defeat at Tottenham on March 21.. Since then, a revival including four wins in a row — coinciding with Schmeichel’s return from a metatarsal injury — has seen them lifted outside the bottom three, albeit by just a point. But a 3-1 home defeat by Chelsea on Wednesday night has put the pressure back on. The King Power Stadium will be no place for the faint-hearted. Newcastle themselves are in freefall and not yet safe.
‘It’s a big achievement to have a chance still of staying up but it’s no big surprise for us,’ insists Schmeichel. ‘ You’d never have believed we were bottom if you’d come into our dressing-room. We never wrote ourselves off because we were unlucky in so many games. Our defeat at Newcastle was typical. We hit the post and they scored a deflected goal to win 1-0.
‘Now we are beginning to get that rub of the green. Burnley missed a penalty last weekend and we scored 58 seconds later. But any luck going our way, we’ve earned it. In this life, you end up getting what you deserve.’ Schmeichel’s sevenyear exile from the top flight began when he lost the battle with Joe Hart to be Manchester City’s No 1 in 2007. ‘Joe and myself were the young ones and Sven Goran Eriksson was trying us out,’ he recalls.
‘I started the season because Joe got a freak injury dislocating his finger on someone’s shoulder. I kept four clean sheets in seven and saved a penalty from Robin van Persie which I thought was good going for a 20-year-old. But before our next game, Sven took me aside after dinner at the hotel and said Joe would be starting.
‘I didn’t think at the time it was the right decision. I can see now the manager had a right to make that call. Joe has gone on to show he is absolute top drawer.’
Schmeichel had two years of loan spells before starting again at League Two Notts County. At least he stayed friends with Eriksson, who was director of football at County by then and later signed him for Leicester.
Schmeichel has played 176 games in four years for the Foxes but none will be bigger than today.
The club’s battle for survival has been repeatedly overshadowed by incidents involving Pearson. On Wednesday night, the manager called a local reporter an ‘ostrich’ — suggesting he had his head in the sand — although he later apologised. As a result of that spat, Leicester’s training ground has reverberated to the sound of laughter this week despite the high stakes. The manager’s son James, a defender on City’s books, has been christened ‘baby ostrich’ by teammates while mobile-phone footage of a spoof interview between David Brent of The Office and Pearson has been shared among players.
Schmeichel says: ‘The Nigel Pearson you see and the Nigel Pearson we see are two very different people. He is a bright, bubbly guy, with a great sense of humour. He knows when to put an arm around someone and when to give a kick up the backside.
‘We have so many characters in the dressing-room. They are big personalities, they don’t need to be told what to do or when to do it. They know if they’ve had a good game or a bad game. They know their own bodies, whether they need a day off or an extra day of hard work. It rubs off on the younger players.
‘Obviously when it comes to team matters and the way we play, the manager is in full control. But man-management in my book is giving players responsibility. You are responsible for your own career, if you ain’t preparing right, you are not going to get picked.’
Peter Schmeichel used to go into lockdown 24 hours before a match, sticking to rigid sleep patterns and not communicating with people outside his close family.
‘I think I am a bit different to how my dad was,’ says Kasper. ‘I have two small children, you can’t really set too many routines when it comes to kids. I just relax, enjoy them and not really think too much about the game beforehand. It is more on the day itself I start building up.
‘I have always believed we could stay up but I have to make the point we are still not safe. We said 10 games ago we wanted to have our destiny in our own hands. And we have.’
‘I’m much more relaxed than my dad was’