Why we should all root for Leicester City
SINGAPORE — Leicester remain top of the English Premier League with a 3-1 away win over title rivals Manchester City, opening up a six-point gap.
SINGAPORE — Leicester remain top of the English Premier League with a 3-1 away win over title rivals Manchester City, opening up a six-point gap.
Saturday’s result, however, does not mean that the race to the Premiership crown is over. With 13 matches to go, there is still everything to fight for. Here are five reasons why football fans should still be rooting for the Foxes to pip Man City to the title...
WE LOVE THE UNDERDOGS
From Cinderella, David and the Goliath, Rocky, and even The Hobbit, we all love a good ol’ rags-to-riches, triumph-over-the-odds, small but mighty kind of fairytale ending.
Man City are fueling their title charge by spending hundreds of millions of petrol dollars pumped in by their Arab owners. Leicester, on the other hand, survived a bruising relegation battle last season and are building their title tilt on promises of free pizzas for a clean sheet.
Just compare the squad value of both teams: Man City’s £235 million (S$480 million) to Leicester’s paltry £55 million.
A league crown for the Foxes will send a resounding message to the football world: You don’t win the league with bags of cash. You win it with a team of men.
VARDY GIVES US HOPE
From non-league football to international stardom in four years, the inspiring story of Leicester striker Jamie Vardy gives hope to all.
Rejected by Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager, the Englishman was playing for non-league side Fleetwood Town when he pondered quitting the game to get another job as his football career was going nowhere. But he was rewarded in 2012 when Leicester came calling and he did not look back since.
In the ensuing years, the 29-year-old helped the club win promotion to the Premier League, survived relegation last season, and earned four international caps for England. This campaign, his 18 goals from 25 league games have inspired the Foxes’ title charge and, on current form, he is a certainty to make Roy Hodgson’s England squad for Euro 2016.
Vardy’s sheer resilience and determination to succeed against all odds is an inspiration.
LEICESTER MAKE THE GAME LOOK SIMPLE
In this modern era of tactical jargon, possession football, systems and “philosophy”, Leicester showed that what works best is to do it once, do it right and make it count.
In 14 of their 15 wins this campaign, the Foxes have had less possession than their opposition. Against Liverpool, whose manager Jurgen Klopp often raves about his “Gegenpressing system”, Leicester still beat them 2-0 despite having just 36 per cent of possession. Against Man City, Leicester only had 35 per cent of possession.
The Foxes’ game plan is based solely on high-octane direct football, executed by very fit and very quick players who will barge through a brick wall to get a good result.
What does this tell you? It’s not about how long you can hold on to the ball, but what you do with it that counts. Louis van Gaal should take note.
RANIERI STICKING IT TO CHELSEA
Who would have guessed Claudio Ranieri would lead Leicester to 24 points and 12 places above champions Chelsea in the Premier League table? The successful season the Italian manager is enjoying with the Foxes have further rubbed the noses of his old Stamford Bridge employers in the dirt.
Unfairly portrayed as the central figure to an underachieving Chelsea side from 2000 to 2004, the fatherly Ranieri was blamed for failing to bring Chelsea higher than fourth place, with his penchant for squad rotation at the time earning him the nickname “Tinkerman”.
He was a dead man walking as early as 2003, when Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich took over the club as owner and wanted his own man to oversee a multi-million revolution. For almost two seasons, Ranieri’s future was shrouded in uncertainty, while Chelsea courted Sven Goran Eriksson overtly, but he acted and worked with utmost professionalism. He was eventually replaced – rather unceremoniously after helping the Blues qualify for the Champions League - by Jose Mourinho in 2004.
Fast forward to today and we know how the story goes. Mourinho was sacked – for a second time – by Chelsea in December. Ranieri is on the brink of Premiership glory.
The Italian deserves his long-overdue moment in the limelight, having the last laugh right from the top of the Premier League table with a shiny medal around his neck.
THEY INSPIRED A NEW HASHTAG
Started by the BBC, the hashtag #WhenIDidALeicester went viral on social media. Fans all over were posting messages using the hashtag to illustrate achievements in their life that beggar belief.
Examples include: “I was employee of the month three times in a row. Even I didn’t see that coming. #WhenIDidALeicester.”
We can’t wait for social media to go into meltdown when the Foxes lift that Premier League crown.