Craig Shakespeare shook up football - but stayed true to himself

Having been released by his boyhood club Villa aged 16, a knock on the door from former Walsall chief scout Ron Jukes paved the way for a footballing career which would span across the next five decades.

Aside from honing his wand of a left foot, which he would later become renowned for, Shakespeare was taught the importance of responsibility very early on.

His first few days were spent clearing weeds from the Fellows Park stands, while the two buses he took to training everyday from his Great Barr home kept him on his toes.

Football has long since moved on from the days of cleaning boots and washing kits, but Shakespeare adopted key values from his time under youth team coach and Walsall’s then all-time record appearance holder Colin Harrison.

Aged 18, Shakespeare made his debut from the bench in a 2-2 draw at Huddersfield Town in September 1982 and was handed his first start at Preston North End in the Milk Cup three days later.

His talents were clear from the outset and Shakespeare finished his debut season under Walsall’s record scorer turned manager Alan Buckley (then in his third spell in the dugout) with four goals in 33 appearances.

He was an ever-present for the following campaign which will eternally hold a special place in Walsall’s history.

Walsall dispatched Blackpool, Barnsley and local rivals Shrewsbury Town in the early rounds of the Milk Cup to set-up a mouth-watering tie at the home of English juggernauts Arsenal.

Despite boasting the talents of Pat Jennings, David O’Leary and Tony Woodcock, the ‘Buckley Babes’, as they became known by the Walsall faithful, pulled off a famous giant-killing at Highbury thanks to goals from Mark Rees and Ally Brown.

After beating Rotherham United in the quarter-final, Walsall travelled to Anfield to face the reigning English champions Liverpool.

More than 10,000 Walsall supporters made the trip to Merseyside as a raucous away section outsung the famous Kop.

Shakespeare was able to hand in his bus pass after passing his driving test in the morning. By night, the midfielder along with his team-mates received applause from all four corners of Anfield, including the Kop. An own goal from Phil Neal and Kevin Summerfield’s lob over Bruce Grobbelaar saw Walsall come from behind twice to record a famous 2-2 draw.

They fell to a 2-0 defeat in the second leg at Fellows Park but Shakespeare was instrumental in Walsall’s remarkable campaign, playing in all nine games in the Milk Cup and in each of their 58 matches across all competitions.

‘Shakey’ scored 13 times in 1984-85 and surpassed that tally with 16 two seasons later.

He missed just one of Walsall’s 61 games in his penultimate season and even played with a broken foot in the four play-off games as they achieved promotion from Division Three in 1998.

A year later, Shakespeare left Fellows Park for Sheffield Wednesday where he first met teammate and future Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson. His stay at Hillsborough was short-lived, however, and he was back in the Black Country at neighbours Albion in 1990.

He made 128 appearances during his three-year stay at the Hawthorns and featured in their Second Division promotion-winning season in 1993.

Further spells at Grimsby Town and Scunthorpe United followed before Shakespeare turned his attentions to coaching after closing out his career in non-league at the likes of Telford United and Hednesford Town.

In 1999, he returned to Albion as Football in the Community Officer and went on to coach in the academy and reserves. He was also reunited with Pearson at Albion and joined him as his assistant at Leicester City in 2008.

Together, Pearson and Shakespeare became a formidable double act – shooting Leicester to title successes in League One and later the Championship, either side of a short stint with Hull City.

The Premier League beckoned but a 13-match winless run, which included 11 defeats, left the Foxes five points adrift of safety by Boxing Day.

They remained rooted to the foot of the table for more than six months, but pulled off a dramatic late escape to finish 14th with seven wins from their final nine games.

Despite that remarkable turnaround, Pearson was dismissed and replaced by Italian Claudio Ranieri.

Shakespeare stayed, serving as a loyal lieutenant to Ranieri just as he had to Pearson previously. But if Leicester’s miracle escape from relegation was regarded as an odds-defying achievement, then the fairytale that would unfold over the next nine months would go down as not only the biggest shock in Premier League history but possibly sporting history.

It was a crowning moment in Shakespeare’s incredible journey too. His humility, character and revered coaching ability helped form a team spirit like no other as Leicester ultimately stormed to the title by 10 points.

He even had a brief spell in the England coaching set-up but left when Sam Allardyce resigned after just one game.

The following season, Leicester struggled and Ranieri paid the price when he was sacked 24 hours after a 2-1 defeat in Sevilla in late-February 2017.

After a short stint as caretaker manager, Shakespeare was handed the reins on a permanent basis. He became the first English manager to win his first four games in the Premier League and masterminded a 2-0 victory over Sevilla to book Leicester’s place in the Champions League quarter final. Shakespeare guided Leicester to a respectable 12th-placed finish as he provided the calming influence they required.

A six-match winless run spelled the end of his nine-year stay at Leicester in October 2017, but he remained in football until just four months before his cancer diagnosis in October last year.

Upon leaving Leicester, Shakespeare worked under Allardyce at Everton and teamed up with Pearson again at Watford. He then joined boyhood club Villa under former Walsall team-mate Dean Smith, who he later followed to Norwich.

And in his final act as a coach, Shakespeare and Smith attempted to rescue Leicester from the drop in 2023. There would prove to be no miracle this time but Shakespeare’s incredible legacy writes itself.

His roots may lie in the West Midlands, but his influence on the game and those who played or worked with him, stretches far and wide.

The tributes that have poured in since his death on Thursday illustrate that and also confirm that football and the world have lost a thoroughly good human being.