Steve Guppy hoping Republic of Ireland can harness some Leicester spirit

Steve Guppy is amongst the many, it seems, who believe the Republic of Ireland can take inspiration from what Leicester City have achieved over the past season as they complete their preparations during the next few weeks for the European Championships in France. Like his boss, Martin O’Neill, he is better placed than most to make the call having been there to watch at first hand as his former club’s fairytale unfolded.

Guppy was in Dublin yesterday when he presented some of the prizes at Show Racism the Red Card’s annual creative arts competition at the Aviva stadium where 600 children representing schools from around the country gathered for the event.

The former Leicester City star acknowledged that the imminent naming of the squad has helped to bring home just how close the start of the tournament is now. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “We’re certainly meeting up more and more. There’s an awful lot of things to discuss. And I’m frightening myself half to death watching our opponents in the evenings; as many DVDs as I can.

“I always find it the same – with Bosnia or Germany – you watch games on DVD and you get quite frightened to be honest. It’s international football, at the end of the day, and every team we play has world class stars but you’ve got to watch them and cling onto anything really that you can mention to the manager that may help.”

Guppy, who previously coached in the United States and worked under O’Neill at Sunderland, admits that there are limits to how much of an impact can be made on players in the short international breaks but he likes to feel that he has been able to contribute in some way to the team’s improvement over the course of the campaign and eventual success in qualifying.

“Obviously that was mainly down to the manager and Roy and the guys,” he said. “The way this campaign grew, the team spirit that developed in everyone was phenomenal and from that came a great deal of confidence and the results at the end against Germany and Bosnia.

“Certainly it (his role) is different to my time working in America or with Sunderland. To be honest, it’s difficult because you’re not with them that long. Really, when you’re looking with the wingers or whatever, it’s more of a project that goes on for the season.

“What you’re having to do is play a percentages game; what you’re hoping for is that with enough repetition, enough practice, you might get in that extra cross, that extra shot that maybe you wouldn’t have if you had not put in . . . the players hadn’t put in all of the hard work. That’s what you’re looking for, small percentages here and there.”

Overall the job has been keeping Guppy busy with the 47-year-old getting along to quite a few games – particularly since his family moved back from the United States late last year – in order to look at players in addition to his contribution on the coaching side.

“It’s still the same as it has been since the day this campaign started,” he said. “The group of us just going out seeing as many games, as many different players as we can. I got asked the question earlier, ‘do you follow one player?’ Sometimes you do but then it’s quite nice for one of the other guys to go and see them as well . . . different set of eyes, different ideas, different mindset so you get a move balanced view of the players.

“That’s quite often how it’s been . . . I’d go and watch a player, Harry Arter for example, I’d go and watch him, I was living down that way so it was great to be able to see him and Eunan O’Kane, and if I thought that they were really doing well then I’d mention it to the manager . . . then I’d travel down with him and it was funny, it was almost like (he has become) my player and you’re a little bit nervous, hoping that he’ll play well.

“That’s been going on for the last couple of years really; the manager and Roy being out there, most nights really, watching players. So I think everybody’s had a chance to show their worth, they’re just not always actually aware of it.”

A couple have come almost from nowhere over the course of the campaign to catch the management team’s eye and then stake their claim.

“One of the best examples I think is Cyrus Christie,” confirmed Guppy, “someone who was at Coventry, got his move to Derby and then that coincided with us starting to watch him very week, really running the rule over him. He took his chance with both hands and I only see him getting better.”

Guppy, shares their sense of excitement at the prospect of making a tournament debut of sorts. He earned one senior international cap for England himself, against Belgium back in 1999 and is relishing the prospect now of being involved with a team at a major championship.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that we’re going to the Euros,” he admitted. “Each game will present problems and difficult situations but hopefully we will create the other teams problems as well. We’re there on merit and we’ll go there and give it everything that we’ve got.

“This was certainly the carrot at the start of the campaign and to get there makes all those journeys from Atlanta, flying back and being away from the family, it makes it completely worthwhile.”

And it is, the latest instalment in his own, rather intriguing career. “I came up through non-league football. I didn’t turn professional until I was 23 so I’ve certainly been around the houses. It was quite a journey. I get quite a bit of stick for just getting one cap, I think I have my own chapter in a book of one-cap wonders but, the only but I can offer, is that 10 years earlier I was playing non-league football, I was playing park football so to manage to work my way through the leagues and to end it with a cap was some journey for me personally . . . and for my dad, Keith, because we did it together really . . . one that I cherish.

He can relate to Jamie Vardy’s remarkable story and takes particular pleasure in the striker’s success having become aware of him when he signed for Halifax town in 2010 then followed his progress before and during his time with Guppy’s own former club Leicester City. He has been quite pleased by the way things have changed there too.

“It’s been quite phenomenal. I moved back in November and one of the first games I went to was Leicester against Chelsea, which on paper was a very difficult game. But what really struck me was that the people round me were not only absolutely expecting Leicester to win but they were waiting for Jamie Vardy to score as well.

“Everybody knew something special was happening. I went to watch quite a few of the games and there was just an incredible atmosphere, even back then but it just grew, and grew and grew and I think one of the most incredible things is that nothing seemed to faze them; even when the pressure was supposed to be mounting, it never showed. Their consistency was incredible, hopefully an inspiration to us all.”

Guppy missed the party when the title was secure and Everton served as extras while the town came out to celebrate. “I actually had a meeting with the manager,” he explains, “but that’s their story, hopefully we will have our own story.”