Houdini's toughest test

Dave Bassett contemplates his toughest challenge yet

BBC Sport Online's Stuart Roach profiles new Leicester manager Dave Bassett.

Dave Bassett's remarkable knack of wriggling free of trouble at the messy end of football's top flight earned him the nickname 'Houdini'.

Now, Bassett will have to produce his greatest escape act of all to answer Leicester's prayers.

Just 12 months ago, Peter Taylor's wily Foxes were sitting pretty at the top of the Premiership.

Bassett guided Forest to the First Division title

One year on, Leicester are bottom of the table and licking their wounds from a 6-0 Worthington Cup thrashing at the hands of Leeds.

But if ever there was a man to take the drama out of a crisis, it is Dave Bassett.

The architect of Wimbledon's original Crazy Gang, Bassett has an uncanny ability to put a smile on the sternest of football faces.

There are not many smiles at Filbert Street right now, though Bassett himself will be laughing all the way to the bank if he preserves Leicester's Premiership status, with a reported £700,000 survival bonus tied in to his contract.

It is a tall order, but Leicester know they have at least bought themselves a ticket in the survival lottery.

Bassett kept Sheffield United up against the odds for three seasons before the Blades were relegated by a single point in 1994.

But it wasn't just the fact that he kept Sheffield United and Wimbledon amongst the football fat cats, despite a shoestring budget.

  Life of Bassett

Born: 4/9/1944

1981: Becomes Wimbledon manager

1983: Wins Fourth division title with Dons

1984: Gains promotion to Second division

1986: Promoted to First division

1988: Joins Watford but leaves months later to join Sheffield United

1990: Brings Blades back to First division

1994: Relegated from the Premiership

1996: Quits United with club in crisis

1997: Spends short time at Crystal Palace before joining Nottingham Forest

1998: Forest promoted to Premiership

December 1998: Sacked as Forest manager - takes over at Barnsley in May 1999

December 2000: Leaves Barnsley by mutual consent

It was the very fact that he had got them there at all.

When Bassett took his first management job at Wimbledon on New Year's Day 1981, the Dons were a Fourth Division side still finding their feet in league football.

Five years later, they were a top-flight club, unafraid of mixing it with the big boys.

The likes of Vinnie Jones and Dennis Wise were typical of the determined no-nonsense approach Bassett's teams adopted, though there is more to his armoury than blatant long-ball tactics.

Wise, a Bassett signing, will need to help rekindle that Crazy Gang spirit if Leicester are to turn their fortunes around this season.

Bassett talks a good game too, underlined by football pundit appearances for television radio and, now, BBC Sport Online.

When his triumphs are tainted by setbacks, he adopts a refreshing football philosophy.

"You have got to miss them to score sometimes," he once mused.

Somehow, it made sense.

Bassett and Tony Agana were Sheffield United heroes

Having steered the Dons to a top-six finish in the old Division One, Bassett made the move to Watford but suffered his first major managerial setback.

A single season in the job failed to save Watford from the drop, but Houdini showed he was no one-trick wonder by taking Sheffield United from the Third Division to the first and keeping them there.

A 'Sheffield cup final' followed, the Blades losing out to their fierce city rivals at Wembley in the semi-final of the 1993 FA Cup.

No wonder Bassett recently called for the two clubs to merge in a bid to rekindle those former glories.

Promotional magic

His remaining three appointments all followed the same theme, with Bassett brought in to win Premiership status for Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Barnsley.

He narrowly failed to take Palace back up to the top flight, losing in the Play-Off final at Wembley to, ironically, Leicester.

But he secured an instant return for Forest after taking over from Stuart Pearce, the First Division title in 1998 securing his seventh promotion as a manager.

Barnsley were the next to ask Bassett to weave his promotional magic and he nearly pulled off another minor footballing miracle, only to lose out to Ipswich in a thrilling Play-Off final last year.

His uncompromising Oakwell overhaul didn't sit well with some fans though and Bassett was shown the Barnsley door last season.

But the setback failed to dampen the fire which burns in Bassett's heart.

Houdini is ready to attempt the impossible once more.