Former Manchester United and Aston Villa boss Ron Atkinson is delighted seeing Nigel Pearson lead Leicester City into the Premier League.
Pearson was Sheffield Wednesday captain under Atkinson in 1991 when the Owls lifted the League Cup and clinched promotion back to the top flight.
"I have been lucky in football that I have always had great captains, like John Wile at West Brom, Bryan Robson at Manchester United and Kevin Richardson at Aston Villa," Atkinson told the Leicester Mercury.
"But I have always said Nigel is the best captain I have ever had, and that is no disrespect to the others.
"He was a great leader of men. He commanded respect from all the players around him and he has taken that on into his managerial career. I definitely knew he would be a good manager.
"Sometimes there are people who surprise you and go on to be successful managers, but there was no doubt about Pearson.
"In fact, there was one occasion when I had gone back to Sheffield Wednesday for a second time and we had a plan in place where I was the manager but I was going to take Nigel on board with me and groom him for the position for a couple of years before he took over.
"Circumstances went against that, and to this day, we don't know what they were.
"So he had to go back and work his way through the circuit again and he has done it brilliantly."
