‘I would say that the odds of us turning the season around are lower than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?” Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as manager of Newport County, the Football League’s bottom club, and the task of staving off a descent into non-league. It is a challenge at the other end of the spectrum, though the fairytale 5,000-1 title win in 2016 gave him more than a winner’s medal. “It helped change my mindset a little bit … it showed that the impossible can be possible.”
The logical place to start is: how did Fuchs end up here? “I guess that’s the part that’s not logical, right?” he says, breaking into laughter. It is the 39-year-old’s opening gambit and an indication of his playful and engaging character across a colourful conversation in his office overlooking an artificial pitch at the University of South Wales campus in Treforest, a dozen miles north-west of Cardiff. Discourse runs in different directions, from playing for Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the need to find a local barber. He opens some post on his desk. There is a letter from a Leicester supporter wishing him well, accompanied by a couple of glossy photos from that season.
