I’d love Leicester City to win the league despite my problems there, says former Celtic keeper Rab Douglas

It’s there in his gait – on his toes, reflexes primed.

The big man walks into a coffee shop like he expects an opportunistic barista to try launching a skinny latte past him on the turn.

But one look into his eyes – still darting, still glinting, and still missing absolutely nothing – tells you there’s no chance of that.

Four months after he last pulled on his gloves in anger – before Dick Campbell’s sacking by Forfar saw him quit the club in solidarity – “Big Rab” is as full of life as ever.

The readiness, the confidence, and the 6ft 5in stature that helped him star for more than two decades with Celtic and Scotland, as well as Livingston, Dundee and the Loons, have not deserted him.

But it’s another of Douglas’ former clubs we’re here to talk about – Leicester City – and it could go either way.

After all, the Leicester he arrived at after leaving Celtic was in a hellish state compared to the outfit that could today take another stride towards the Premier League title with victory over West Ham.

The Foxes of 10 years ago had just endured administration, and boardroom turmoil was rife. The manager, Craig Levein, paid for it with his job just months after Douglas’ arrival.

In the aftermath, things turned sour and the big keeper spent an unhappy two campaigns under a multitude of managers and caretakers, being punted out on loan to Millwall, Wycombe Wanderers and Plymouth Argyle.

Under the circumstances, Douglas could be forgiven for exhibiting a degree of spikiness over his treatment in the East Midlands.

Instead, get him talking about Claudio Ranieri’s shock troops, and his enthusiasm is genuinely heartwarming.

“I absolutely love it,” he says, sipping from a latte plucked from its saucer with characteristic assurance and warming quickly to his theme.

“It’s been brilliant to see them doing so well. We lived down there for three years and my wife and I both agreed it’s somewhere you would actually go back to.

“It’s a one-team city, and the rugby team also does well. The area we were in, a lovely wee village called Quorn, just outside Loughborough, was beautiful. You could walk about and nobody would bother you.

“I only played the first year at Leicester, and things didn’t work out after that, but I’m absolutely thrilled for them.

“The big goalie coach, Mike Stowell, the physio and the kit man are all still there. The office staff I knew are all still there. They’re nice people and they deserve every success.

“There’s certainly no bitterness whatsoever on my part. I’m like everyone else in the country outside those who support the big four teams – I’d love to see them win the league.

“They’re two, three wins away now, and hopefully the fat lady will be singing. They’ve been through a lot over the last 10 years and all I feel is immense pride in how they’re doing.”

Douglas has been through his fair share, too – not that he would ever admit it.

After Ian Holloway capped off the previously outcast goalie’s time at Leicester by suddenly naming him on the bench as relegation to League One was confirmed in 2008, he returned to the familiar surroundings of Dens Park.

There, a high-profile bust up with manager John Brown led to an acrimonious ending to his second stint as a Dark Blue.

His departure from Forfar in December was yet another chapter in the story of a career that seems, increasingly, to have at its heart its own protagonist’s determination to do the right thing, whatever happens.

And learning that “the right thing” can require walking away is something he did in the darkest days of his time at post-Levein Leicester.

“Sometimes it doesn’t work out in football. I played 35 games in my first season at Leicester, but you’re not always everybody’s cup of tea,” says Douglas, modestly.

“After Craig Levein left, I played under Rob Kelly, Nigel Worthington, Gary Megson, Martin Allen and Ian Holloway, so that’s a fair selection of managers in three years.

“But the potential was always there. There’s a massive fanbase. Even in the Championship, we were getting great crowds.

“The one thing I regret is that I should have left in my second year.

“I was asked to go to Peterborough on loan at that time, and I didn’t go. I didn’t even know if it was for a week, a month, a few months, or a year, I just said: ‘No’.

“By the time the third year came, I was delighted to get out and play a few games on loan, but, looking back on it, I should have gone sooner.”

The emergence of David Marshall, coupled with Martin O’Neill’s decision to push him to the fore, meant Douglas’ time at Celtic, meanwhile, ended at just the right time.

It’s easy to get the impression that, given the chance, Douglas would be in there with them, even at 43.

So was Forfar the end, or is there more to be written in his tale?

“I’m just waiting to see. Maybe!” he says, that glint returning to his eye.

“I still feel good. I’ve lost a good bit of weight. It’s just a case of getting back in training and seeing if anybody wants you.”

Given his energy, his enthusiasm and his experience, if nobody does, it will be a huge surprise.

Just like Leicester City becoming English champions.

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