The Non-Dreamers
The importance of Leicester City’s success in the greatest Premier League season to date
May 2016, Leicester City are Premier League champions. An incredible feat and journey that started with the bookies having them at 5000/1 odds to win it all and a mere 3/1 to get relegated. It is in my opinion one of the biggest sporting achievements in modern times and maybe ever. But why? And how?! Well, honestly nobody knows for sure how they did it and some even try to explain it with help of King Richard III’s remains. Sure, by now everybody already heard about the team’s winning mentality and style of play but right until the game against Manchester United there were still some saying what we all thought at some point during this season: “Surely they can’t win it! Can they…?”. Well the players and the fans kept dreaming they could and in the end they did. As Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri nicely puts it “Keep dreaming, why wake up?”
“What’s so important about this achievement?”, I'm sure there are a lot of people (mainly non-football fans) asking this. Of course Leicester City isn't the first underdog to exceed expectations but, as in the best parts of life, it’s really more about the journey than it is about the destination. They were consistent all the way through the season, winning against the top teams and the bottom teams, outscoring the opponent in high scoring affairs and keeping it tight and grind out those 1–0 victories when needed. And this with a combination of unknown players and a manager who was not as loved when he came in as he is now.
The Tinkerman
A man who was just let go by the Greek national team after losing to the Faroe Islands and whose last Premier League adventure didn't end too well for him either, getting the sack at Chelsea in favour of José Mourinho. Even Leicester ex-player Gary Lineker tweeted his disappointment with the appointment of Ranieri although the club had just barely maintained their Premier League status in the passing season. At the time Nigel Pearson seemed just fine for Leicester even winning the last seven out of nine games to miraculously keep Leicester in the top flight of football. Although in retrospect I guess the orgies didn't help…and when do they?
Claudio Ranieri got a reputation in England of excessive tinkering, always altering his Chelsea side without any need or, some say, reason, and after managing Juventus, Roma, Inter, Monaco and Greece, the 64-year old arrived at the King Power Stadium with a mixed reputation. What followed was the incredible season that we just witnessed. The “Tinkerman” proved to be consistent with his team and tactic selection, not really tinkering at all besides the first couple of matches. He identified the winning formula for his team and kept using it. Claudio would set his team to sit deep in the field, patiently waiting to win the ball in their own third and then rapidly moving the ball forward to the strikers. These quick attacks worked very well for the first 2/3rd of the season when teams were still not giving Leicester the credit they deserved and pushed too high to defend properly against this kind of direct football. When the opposition started fearing Leicester and defended deep, the goals came from set-pieces and then the Foxes would defend their 1–0 lead until the end of the game. When Leicester attacked, they stretched the game out wide, but when defending the forwards would keep the side compact which allowed the center-mids to drop deep and protect the center-backs, who in turn would only have to concentrate on clearing high balls and not spread out that much.
What Ranieri did was no masterclass and nothing out of this world, but it was crucial: he came in and identified the capabilities of each player and adjusted the team mentality to better use everyone’s strong suit. Claudio is also different to your stereotypical Premier League manager. Like a grandfather he comes in everyday with a smile and has that warm and fuzzy aura around him. That feeling is helped created by the way he coaches, patiently and seemingly without any worry in the world, implementing his tactics into the squad and in the meantime ‘leaking’ his positivity into the players.
He came in as the leper no one wanted and now you would have to fight any Leicester fan to take him away from them.
The Dream Builders
What do a French third tier player, a Le Havre reservist, a Halifax Town nobody and a Notts County overweight reject have in common? They currently all have a Premier League winners medal around their necks.
The amazing story of Leicester’s team is very much tied to the amazing story of its players. Although now a lot of teams might be rubbing their hands thinking about acquiring these players, at the start of the season there wasn't nobody snooping around, that I guarantee. Most fans and journalists will say the same, that there isn't a star player in Leicester squad, that every player was equally valuable in the team’s success. I also believe that fact, however when talking about Leicester we just can’t ignore the meteoric rise the majority of these players had.
Riyad Mahrez has won the 2016 PFA Player of the year award, following the footsteps of Eden Hazard and Luis Suarez. He scored 17 goals and assisted 11 in this year’s campaign and has become the most coveted player in the market. Not bad for someone that 4 years earlier was playing in Le Havre’s reserves and not even on the Algerian national team radar. Jamie Vardy rose the football ranks and this year almost clinched the league’s topscorer award with his 24 goals, but did break Van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in 11 consecutive games. Quite the feat. His work rate, stamina and pace helped him become the perfect focal point of Leicester direct attacks and he’ll be bringing those attributes with him to EURO 2016 in France. Wes Morgan, the team’s captain, became only the third player to play every single minute of the season of a title winning side. The Jamaican international personifies Leicester’s solidity and consistency, having only been booked 3 times. N’Golo Kanté is my player of the season. He managed to top the charts of both tackling and interception stats while still remaining a creative outlet for his team, setting the standard for a modern box-to-box player. His midfield partnership with Danny Drinkwater was a pleasure to watch and I can’t remember a single match where Kanté didn't have a good game. All the team’s players, not only these few I talked about, were incredible and most will prove once again their worth in the big stages of the Champions League and some even Euro 2016.
The morning after
Ranieri’s team have broken the city’s own motto Semper Eadem (always the same) and after 132 years of existence, the city of Leicester can celebrate their first major trophy. Devoid of star names and lacking the money that the big teams have, Leicester City’s men worked with each other and for each other. The fans were always behind the team, dreaming of what could be, making the King Power Stadium one of the noisiest grounds in the league. Even the substitutes and the bench players knew their role and were happy to do their part, always coming in the game with a smile and never complaining. For every Mahrez, Vardy and Kanté there is a Schlupp, Ulloa and Amartey also contributing to the team’s success.
For me however, the importance of Leicester’s title win is what comes after that moment. After Andrea Bocelli’s music stops and the confetti is swept off the floor, what remains is believe and hope. In a sport that has become an industry, filled with more money than sense, which sees the usual teams winning the title year after year (only increasing their sponsor value and making it even more difficult for the other teams to win), Leicester has broken the status quo. They proved that in football, money isn't everything and with believe and hard work any team can reach any place, and any person can achieve anything. It sounds like a cliché, I know, but it’s true. Clubs stuck in lower-mid table can now start their season with hope to become “the next Leicester” and their fans can also dream. And from now on, every time a team does exceed the expectations the media and the fans will compare them to Leicester and remember this season. Leicester made Premier League (and sport) history in more ways than simply winning a title. This success brought the romance back to a sport that was in dire need of it and football fans around the world cheered for Leicester’s win because they know that, in the end, it was a win for football as a whole.
“ No matter what happens to end this season, I think our story is important for all football fans around the world. It gives hope to all the young players out there who have been told they are not good enough. They can say to themselves, ‘How do I arrive at the top level? If Vardy can do this, if Kanté can do this, maybe I can too’ (….) You just need to keep an open mind, an open heart, a full battery, and run free.” — Claudio Ranieri
Alexandre Kisker Ribeiro for Between the Lines, 22/05/2016, all photos are credited to their respective authors
