Coady has racked up hundreds of top-flight appearances down south and has also won 10 caps for his country
Anthony Evans
17:08, 01 Jul 2025
Conor Coady(Image: Leicester City FC via Getty Imag)
Conor Coady is a player who will not only talk his teammates through a game – but he won't be afraid to give it back as well.
That's the view of the veteran defender's former English Championship rival Liam Ridgewell who recently described the imminent Rangers' signing as one of the last of a dying breed of old-school footballers.
Record Sport has revealed that the ex Liverpool and Everton player is edging closer to a move north of the border from Leicester, where he has just one year remaining on his contract.
Ridgewell mixed it with the best in the English Premier League during his spells with Aston Villa, Birmingham and West Brom before moving onto the MLS with Portland Timbers in 2014.
By prior to hanging up his boots in 2020 following a brief stint at Southend United, the no-nonsense centre back came directly up against Coady in England's second tier during loan spells with Wigan and Brighton.
The 40-year-old was renowned for giving his opponents stick during games and reckons that Coady is very much cut from the same cloth.
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Asked about his antics on the pitch in an interview with FourFourTwo last month, Ridgewell replied: "I'd say that it was more talking team-mates through a game.
"I'd be non-stop, and that in itself would sometimes wind people up.
"You'd get a striker telling me, 'Will you shut up?' But it's something that's going away from the game these days.
Conor Coady during his time at Wolves(Image: Wolves via Getty Images)
"During Covid, watching football on television without supporters in the grounds, we could all hear the players and I think some were surprised at the level of communication.
"Conor Coady is a great example. He doesn't stop either. But you get less of it in the game now."
Rangers' current crop of players have been accused of lacking leadership ability in recent seasons and boss Russell Martin will hope Coady's arrival will help fill that void.
The former Liverpool kid captained Wolves in the Premier League between 2018 and 2022 and was a key cog in the side that reached the quarter finals of the Europa League in 2020.
Two years earlier, his old manager and current Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito lavished praise on his skipper for leading by example after moving him from midfield into defence and correctly predicted that he would go onto win international recognition.
He stated: "I think yes," (he said about Coady pulling on the Three Lions' jersey). "But this is the decision of Southgate.
"What do I like about him as a player? His ability, his voice, and the way he sees things. I like the player.
"From the beginning, we saw a lot of Wolves games before we took charge and made decisions. Some of those were good, some not so good - but that was a good decision (to move Coady to centre half).
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"The first day that we started training it was decided Conor was going to play there. After that, we have to see by ourselves if he had what we expect from him.
"It worked out, was a good choice."