As the Premier League leaders face Arsenal today, they do so as the latest club in English football to organise themselves into a force capable of outperforming much wealthier rivals. While Southampton, Swansea, Watford and Crystal Palace have all overachieved at times none have come close to Leicester’s title charge.  Their head of recruitment, Steve Walsh, whom Lineker namechecked as the driving force behind signing Mahrez, is a key figure at the club. Walsh is also assistant manager, and was part of Nigel Pearson’s backroom staff when the former Leicester manager was at the club in his first spell. Walsh went with Pearson to Hull in 2010, returning with him to Leicester the following year.  Leicester's head of recruitment, Steve Walsh  A former PE teacher, Walsh also worked at Chelsea, rising to European scout under Jose Mourinho in his first period at the club. He is the brother of former Blackpool, Everton and Queens Park Rangers striker Mickey Walsh who scored that famous goal of the season against Sunderland in 1975. Now an agent, Mickey represents Pearson.  • Pressure is all on Wenger, claims relaxed Ranieri  Yet when Pearson was sacked at the end of last season, the decision was made by Leicester to retain his backroom staff of Steve Walsh and second assistant Craig Shakespeare. The plan was that the successful structure of the club should be retained and there should be sensible resistance to a new manager trying to rip it up and start again.  Claudio Ranieri has brought in just two staff members, assistant Paolo Benetti and sports scientist Andrea Azzalin. When Ranieri was at Chelsea, much of the resentment from players towards their Italian manager was generated by the distrust felt for his staff, especially his fitness coach Roberto Sassi, whom the squad regarded as “a little rat”, as Graeme Le Saux recalled in his autobiography. Ranieri’s transition to Leicester has been much smoother.  In December 2014, Jon Rudkin was promoted from Leicester’s academy to director of football. Along with chief executive Susan Whelan, he was tasked last summer with finding a new manager by the club owners, the Thai duty free billionaire, and polo enthusiast, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and his son, Top. Walsh retained his recruitment role although as one of Ranieri’s assistants he is with the first team squad much of the time and therefore works closely with his head scout, David Mills.  The Srivaddhanaprabha family have presided over a rapid rise  Mills, 64, had a good 20-year playing career at Middlesbrough in the late 1960s and 1970s, moving on to Newcastle United and Sheffield Wednesday among others. He assesses targets all over Europe and was the man who tracked Mahrez and N’Golo Kante. Pearson and Walsh’s regard for him speaks volumes. They took Mills to Hull and then back to Leicester.  There is no substitute for the experience of men like Walsh and Mills, who have either played or scouted in the English game for decades and have the contacts to match. The signing of Jamie Vardy may look an obvious choice now but at the time £1 million for a non-league footballer was a major risk. No scout recommends a player at that level at that cost, without considering the damage to his reputation if it goes wrong.  As a Sheffield lad, Vardy was the kind of target who came early to the attention of Pearson, Walsh and Mills with their connections in the city.  • How plucky Arsenal can beat mighty Leicester  Both Pearson and Mills had played for Wednesday and Walsh’s years in recruitment have taken him all over, from London to Newcastle United – under Sam Allardyce – as well as stints at Bury and Chester. Walsh and Mills were aware of Vardy in his Stocksbridge Park Steels days and as he progressed they were able to make a quick decision.  An interesting question would be what happens to Walsh, Shakespeare and Mills when Pearson returns to management. The four of them are close and Walsh and Shakespeare have contracts at Leicester which are due to expire at the end of next season.  In December, Leicester signed a new recruitment manager, the former Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest striker David Johnson, to focus on scouting players in the Under-21s and academy age groups. Johnson has four years’ experience as a talent scout for Chelsea and the kind of judgment that Leicester value.  As for Wrigglesworth, he is the latest man in his position to be poached – Leicester’s last head of technical scouting, Rob Mackenzie, went to Tottenham. The new man is Ollie Waldron and he will be responsible for collating reports into profiles of potential targets as well as scouting himself.  There is no great secret to it: experienced people, trusting owners, mainly good recruitment decisions that are not based on too-clever-by-half data models. No club gets it right all the time, but Leicester do so more than most. Pearson’s role in it should not be forgotten either, given it was him who assembled such an excellent staff at the club. Perhaps Ranieri will raise a glass to all the unsung heroes if he chalks up another win today.
A vital part of the leaders&rsquo; success is the highly regarded recruitment   system that harnesses the sound judgment of people with many years in the   game