Leicester’s EPL win… Befitting end to a fairy tale

They were not given much chance. But, they carried on like one with a mission. That mission was achieved two days when they emerged winner of the EPL. Adeyinka Adedipe tells the amazing

Leicester story

Economic gains

Already, Hollywood is excited about Leicester feat and the idea of making a film is in its final stage. Several actors are already jostling for roles. This will translate to big money for everyone involved in the film, while the players who will talk to film directors and producers would also have financial gains.
Also, the players are set to become richer, while those who will move to other clubs will do so at staggering cost. The team would also make a lot of money from this new-found fame, selling it merchandise all over the world especially in England and Asia.

Five lessons from Leicester’s success

DON’T BE MOVED
BY CRITICISMS

When you are on the right path, never listen to people. Had Leicester listened to all the noise around them from the start, they would never have achieved the impossible especially when they were tipped for relegation the season before.

BE CONSISTENT
IN HARDWORK
Leicester’s victory has revealed that success is inevitable when you tirelessly work for it.

YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE
Until you see yourself as a failure, you are not a failure.
Human beings must always brace up to their challenges and pursue them to fulfill their goals.

MONEY IS NOT
EVERYTHING
Leicester City ran on a shoestring budget which never bothered them. They played with a lion’s heart to run down their opponents.

GRAB YOUR
OPPORTUNITY
Leicester grabbed the chance because opportunities only come once. They simply cashed in on the crisis that had befallen the big clubs in the premier league to write their names in gold.

The world is in agreement that the feat is the greatest in sporting history. From 5,000-1 outsiders to champions with two matches to spare, the Leicester City story is definitely the most remarkable in soccer history. The champions defied the odds to achieve the feat and never dropping beyond the sixth position to eventually emerge champions after Chelsea and Tottenham played out a pulsating 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge on Monday. The champions did their beat by playing a 1-1 draw against Manchester United on Sunday.

Sports’ analysts, former players, fans, rivals and doubters alike have continued to pay tribute to the underdogs whose story will surely be an inspiration to many and show that perseverance is key to success. What is more remarkable is the fact that the team battled relegation last season, only surviving the drop after putting together a string of performance that also bemused analysts who had tipped the small town club for relegation.

Those who took notice of the club performance were convinced that the great escape of last season, if built upon, would catapult the team to Premier League regulars, not knowing that they would make a lasting impression on world football by winning the title the next season despite the presence of the big clubs – Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

To sustain their stay in the big league, Leicester appointed the Italian Claudio Ranieri after doing away with Nigel Pearson. The Thai billionaire owner of the club, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha must have felt that the team needed an experienced coach to guide the club in the new season hence the appointment of the Italian. In their usual style, the British Press castigated Leicester for employing ‘the Tinkerman’ (who got the nickname for his style at Chelsea). He has also failed to win the title with any team he had coached despite being in the business for long.

Ranieri set about doing his job meticulously. At the start of this season the Foxes picked up where they left off in May, a 4-2 opening-day win over Sunderland taking them to the top of the table. They stayed there for two weeks before consecutive draws against Tottenham and Bournemouth saw them slip to third, which was supposed to be the start of their slide down the table, but it never happened.

In fact, Leicester did not drop below sixth place all season and, after moving to the top again on  January 11 courtesy of a 1-0 win at title rivals Tottenham, they would not relinquish that position for the rest of the season. Their form enabled them to clinch the title with two games to spare. But even if they win their remaining matches, they will have won the title with fewer points than any of the previous five winners.

It also helped that Ranieri didn’t tinker with his team while regularly naming the same starting XI. In fact, it is on record that Leicester used fewer players than any other team. According to statistics, Manchester United used 33 players, Liverpool (33), Newcastle United (30), Everton (30), Crystal Palace (29). Aston Villa (28), Bournemouth (28), Norwich City (28), Sunderland (28), West Ham United (28). Stoke City (27). Chelsea (26), Southampton (26), Swansea City (26), West Bromwich Albion (26), Arsenal (25), Manchester City (25), Watford (25), Tottenham Hotspur (24) and Leicester City (23).

Also, players who had once been bright prospects but never really delivered suddenly came good – goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, defender Robert Huth and midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Marc Albrighton. Even those who perhaps under-delivered chipped in, like Shinji Okazaki and Leonardo Ulloa. While Leicester’s most high-profile summer signing, Gokhan Inler, barely featured at all.

Apart from these players, the team’s highest scorer Jamie Verdy, played non-league football with Fleetword and Halifax, while Riyad Mahrez emerged the best player in the league chipping in 17 goals and 11 assist. Captain Wes Morgan provided the leadership needed to steer the team to victory, while the support cast of N’Golo Kanté, Jeffery Schlupp, Inler, Okazaki and many others provided the necessary backing that helped the team quest for glory.

Leicester Defied Financial Logic

In an era where management and owners of teams invest heavily in the squad to guarantee success, Leicester winning squad cost a meager £63million, 15th in the league. Man City was assembled with £415m, Man Utd £395m, Chelsea £280m, Liverpool £260m, Arsenal £231m, Tottenham £159m, Newcastle £145m, Southampton £139m, Everton £112m, Sunderland £112m, West Ham £106m, Aston Villa £93m, Stoke £73m. Crystal Palace £72m, Leicester £63m, West Brom £62m, Swansea £56m, Watford £53m. Norwich £55m, Bournemouth £43m.

It is 21 years since any team other than Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United won the top-flight title. And in an era of ever-increasing television revenue, where the latest deal is worth £5.136bn, it was considered unthinkable that any team could break the dominance of the traditional elite clubs. Yet Leicester has defied financial logic.

Leicester’s feat is gigantic but some other elements also worked in their element. Defending champions, Chelsea’s collapse early in the season was strange, Manchester City was inconsistent, Manchester United remained mired in its identity crisis, Arsenal fell off after the winter yet again, Liverpool was still a ways from being competitive and Tottenham’s maturation and subsequent surge came too late.

But Leicester had the most points, and the team with the most points is the deserved winner. This is mathematically and logically true. And it also speaks to the height of the achievement at a club where everything combined in mysterious unison.

Many are seeing the performance as a fluke but it seems the playing field may have been leveled in a once unimaginable way where everyone can compete without hindrance. In the meantime, Leicester City is the Premier League champion. Watching as a team at Vardy’s house, the Foxes roared and cheered and sang upon the final whistle, and then they went into a stunned silence. They didn’t seem to understand quite what had happened.

Ranieri

finally wins

On 13 July 2015, Leicester City announced Ranieri as the club’s new manager on a three-year contract. His appointment was initially met with scepticism; Marcus Christenson of The Guardian called it “baffling” given Ranieri’s frequent recent dismissals and Greece’s loss to the Faroe Islands. Christenson highlighted that Ranieri’s good humour would be the antithesis to the short-tempered outbursts of his predecessor Nigel Pearson, concluding that “If Leicester wanted someone nice, they’ve got him. If they wanted someone to keep them in the Premier League, then they may have gone for the wrong guy.”

His managerial debut with the club came in a 4–2 win over Sunderland on the opening match of the season on 8 August. After the game Ranieri told the media that he inspired the team to win by giving them motivation from local rock band Kasabian. Following Leicester’s first clean sheet of the season, which came on the club’s tenth fixture of the 2015–16 Premier League season, in a 1–0 home win to Crystal Palace on 24 October, Ranieri attracted further media attention when he rewarded his players by taking the team out for pizza and champagne. The strong start to the season saw the club at the top of the Premier League at Christmas, having scored in each of their first 17 games. During this run striker Jamie Vardy broke a Premier League record by scoring in 11 consecutive league games, a run Ranieri compared to Gabriel Batistuta’s during the 1994–95 season, whilst Ranieri was his manager at Fiorentina.

In March 2016, Ranieri’s quips once again attracted attention from the media when he stated in an interview that he used an “imaginary bell” in training in order to keep his players focussed, by saying “dilly ding, dilly dong”;the quote later gained popularity and became a club catchphrase. Leicester City’s change of form led the BBC to compare the world media attention brought to Leicester by Ranieri with that achieved by the discovery of the remains of Richard III of England.

Leicester entered April at the summit of the Premier League and on 10 April 2016, they clinched a spot in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League after a 2–0 away win over Sunderland. Despite pressure from the chasing teams, Leicester maintained their lead at the top of the table throughout April and entered May knowing they only needed 3 points to lift the Premier League trophy. Following a hotly contested 1–1 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 1 May, Leicester clinched the Barclays Premier League title the following day, when second place team Tottenham Hotspur could only manage a 2–2 against Ranieri’s former club Chelsea, despite leading 2–0 at half time. This was the first time the club had won the title in their 132-year history.  The team’s success was described as a “fairytale” and the “most unlikely triumph in the history of team sport”. In spite of Ranieri’s previous “Tinkerman” nickname, Leicester consistently played the same line-up under his stewardship,  using fewer players than any other team.

Throughout the season, Ranieri drew praise from the media for his good humour and inspirational leadership at Leicester, and for successfully building a winning mentality and a successful team environment, while also being singled out for his tactical awareness, and for frequently relieving the pressure off of his players. His title success led the world media to dub him “King Claudio.”

Lessons for Nigerian teams

For Nigerian teams which believe big budget and mass changes in the playing staffs are what is needed to, the feat of Leicester City should come in handy. The club achieved the feat with little budget and retaining most of the players that battle relegation last year.

What the champions did was to employ Ranieri, who had experience and good natured. He turned the team around and led it to an unprecedented title victory. No one had expected him to achieve the feat, but the good mannered Italian defied all odds to also pick up his first winners medal.

It is typical of Nigerian team to recruit as much as 16 new players each season even after winning a title. Club administrators in the country have turned this into a fad and that is why Nigerian team are struggling on the continent. This year only Enyimba FC of Aba made it to the lucrative group stage of CAF Champions League with no Nigerian club in the Confederation Cup.

Also, rotating coaches among teams have also become in the Nigeria Football Professional League. The sacking of coaches defies logic especially the one that just won a title. Nigerian clubs should also take a cue from the new EPL champion who relied on hardwork, determination and team work. For a team, which lacked notable stars, analysts expected them to battle relegation again, but they won the title.

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