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'I estimate that the likelihood of us transforming our fortunes are lower than Leicester lifting the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?' Christian Fuchs is reflecting on his recent venture as boss of Newport County, and the monumental task of preventing a drop into non-league football. Here lies a challenge at the polar opposite of the scale, though that unbelievable title win in 2016 furnished him much more than a champion's gong. {'It assisted in altering my mindset a little bit ... it proved that the impossible can be possible,' he notes.

The Illogical Path to Rodney Parade

The obvious place to start is: what brought Fuchs end up here? 'That's the element of the story that defies logic, wouldn't you say?' he comments, letting out a chuckle. This serves as the 39-year-old's opening gambit and a clear demonstration of his charismatic character across a fascinating conversation. Discourse runs in multiple pathways, from being managed by Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the urgent quest to find a local barber.

He sorts through some correspondence on his desk. There is a letter from a Leicester supporter wishing him well, along with a couple of professional photographs from that campaign. {'Young Fuchs,' he remarks, smiling. Another package brings a hoard of old stickers, one from an album commemorating Euro 2016, when he captained Austria. A card from the Newport Supporters’ Club is given special attention. Things like this makes me very pleased,' he adds.

A Prior Encounter and a Misspelt Name

Prior to his move back from North Carolina to take on his first job in senior management last month, Fuchs’s previous visit to Rodney Parade was in January 2019, when Leicester were on the end of a Newport shock defeat in the FA Cup third round. That day the Newport kit man competed with Fuchs. {'He had the match of his life,' Fuchs admits. But when the teamsheets dropped, an interesting error was discovered. {'You need to censor this,' Fuchs remarks. 'They misspelt my name – somehow a 'k' crept in in place of the 'h'. It is amusing because Fuchs, in German, means fox, so it’s something fitting.'

Experiences from Claudio, Rodgers and Tuchel

His move to join the Foxes in the summer of 2015 turned out to be inspired. A couple of weeks later Leicester hired Claudio Ranieri and an iconic story unfolded. The Italian arrived at the club in the midst of a pre-season camp in Austria and his hands-off approach worked wonders. {'When you observe Claudio you envision an older man, so long in the business, maybe a bit traditional, but he’s anything but,' Fuchs states. {'He just said he was going to watch training in Austria for the first week. He didn’t get involved at all. After that week we had a meeting and he said: 'I’ve observed you for a week and I’m not going to modify anything.''

Fuchs values lessons learned from Rodgers and Tuchel, under whom he worked while on loan at Mainz. {'He always thought: ‘How can I get extra out of the players? How can I test them psychologically?’’ Fuchs says of Tuchel. {'That’s a major part of our philosophy as well. How can you make good decision-makers? Back then he was probably in a analogous place to where I am now … very focused, very anxious to prove himself.'

Background and a Resolute Nature

Fuchs’s determination originates in his childhood in Neunkirchen. {'There are parallels to where we are now, because I was told when I was 11 years old that I would never be good enough,' he shares. {'There are people who let that defeat them or there are people who say: ‘Forget you, I’m going to show you.’ I’ve been told too many times: ‘You can not do this, you can not do that.’ I’m going to show that I can and put in the hard yards. The other thing about my make-up is: I’m quite headstrong. If I see promise, I’m making it happen.'

Analytical Approach and the Struggle for Survival

Fuchs’s assistant, Mark Smith, was born in Newport and had been in charge of Fuchs’s Fox Soccer Academy. Fuchs fires up his laptop to show analytics from a recent 2-2 draw, presenting a slide he used with his players. {'The team hit many, many season highs,' he explains, emphasizing ball progression and statistics about getting behind defensive lines. Passing accuracy was logged at 87%. {'Not happy with that … that needs to be in the mid-90s,' he declares. {'My first game, it was very direct, League Two football, but we want to be different. I think a five-yard pass has a higher probability to arrive than just going long all the time.'

The general numbers make grim reading. Newport have managed three of 19 league matches and are winless in eight in all competitions. By the time of their next home game, they will have not tasted victory at home for 273 days and have kept just two clean sheets in 26 matches this season. But a recent 93rd-minute equaliser with 10 men garnered a valuable point. {'We need to be a dominant side at home,' Fuchs says. {'It’s just not satisfactory, not even having a win. We need to build a stronghold.'

Still a Player at Heart

By his own confession, Fuchs relishes a challenge. {'What’s so wrong with that?' He ended his playing career less than three years ago and, like Tuchel, likes being in the thick of things. {'I’m a component of the group. I’m still a player in here,' he states, tapping his chest. {'At training I’m always participating in the boxes – two pannas already, brilliant! I want us to see each other as one team. Yes, you’re the ones on the field, but we’re all in this together, we’re working on this collectively.'