'A masterstroke' - how O'Neill brought Cottee back from cup final heartache
- Published
Former Leicester City striker Tony Cottee says Martin O'Neill's man-management was a masterstroke in inspiring the Foxes to League Cup glory.
Speaking on the Sacked in the Morning podcast, Cottee labelled his Leicester years as the "peak" in his career but admitted the cup final defeat by Tottenham in 1999 left him certain he would not win silverware at Filbert Street.
That was, until, O'Neill intervened.
"It was just a poor final," Cottee said of the Spurs victory. "[Tottenham full-back] Justin Edinburgh got sent off and all we really had to do was just hang on to go into extra-time. With the extra man, I was pretty certain we would have gone on and won the game.
"Us being us, we just switched off and Tottenham broke, scored in the 89th minute or something stupid, and we just couldn't recover.
"When the final whistle went, I just felt sorry for myself. I had played in four English finals and I had lost all four of them - and I just lost it.
"I just remember putting my hands on my head and crying my eyes out. I had a few of the players come up to me, but I didn't want to talk to them because you're in your moment, crying on the pitch at Wembley.
"Then, all of a sudden, I had this arm on my shoulder. I recognised the voice immediately and it was Martin O'Neill."
Known as one of the game's greatest motivators, O'Neill knew what to say to turn Cottee's fortunes around.
"He went: 'Tony, don't worry. We'll be back next year'. I looked at him and I went: 'Gaffer, I'm 33 years of age. It's so hard to win a trophy. We ain't coming back next year'. He went: 'I promise you that we will be back here next year'," Cottee said.
"True to his word, the following year we got back there, somehow or other.
"We played against Tranmere. It wasn't the most glamorous of finals, obviously, but we won. We beat them 2-1 and Matt Elliott scored two goals.
"At the end of the game, to walk up the steps as a winner in my fifth final, to put the medal on, to just lift the League Cup and think: 'I've won something - it has taken me 17 years, but I've won something'...
"Again, that was a masterstroke from O'Neill to just give me the encouragement to go again the following season."
