Foxes are leading the pack.
It’s fitting that Leicester City have the opportunity to clinch the Premier League title at Old Trafford because it was at the Theatre of Dreams where the stark realities of the self-proclaimed ‘best league in the world’ were made painfully obvious to me.
Cast your mind back to October 22nd, 2010.
Wayne Rooney – Manchester United’s talisman in the post-Ronaldo era – has just thrown his expensive toys out of the pram and is holding the club to ransom over a new contract. With the advice of agent Paul Stertford ringing in his ear, the striker looks set to move on.
Ambition and a desire to compete for trophies are perfectly legitimate reasons to leave any club, but as Rooney would later prove when David Moyes was manager, he’ll never be able to remove this debacle from the memories of football fans.
The only loyalty that exists in football is between the fans and their club, it’s a short career and players should make as much money as possible, but Rooney’s situation was different.
It’s why some Man Utd fans have never forgiven him, and refuse to hold him in the same appreciation as true icons like Best, Charlton, Scholes, Giggs and even Ronaldo (after all, he did his negotiations behind closed doors and still stuck around to lead United to another Champions League final. He also didn’t entertain the idea of Man City.)
At the very same time that the future England captain was openly flirting with the noisy neighbours in 2010, Leicester City were lying 20th in the Championship – just one point off the dropzone. Sven-Goran Eriksson was the man in charge of The Foxes. Jeffrey Schlupp and Andy King are the only survivors from that 2-1 win away to Leeds United.
How things can change.
Leicester City have the chance to send shockwaves all over European football this weekend – not since Montpellier toppled mega-rich PSG in Ligue One has there been a greater upset in domestic football – but the inevitable coronation of Ranieri’s men is exactly what the financially bloated and incredibly erratic Premier League needs.
The established aristocracy from London and Manchester looks set to fall, but will it be temporary?
Football will always be my first love but a degree of apathy has crept in.
Seeing how clubs treat their Academy players and an adherence to flamboyant spending over coaching have both played a part.
It’s a broad statement but chairmen see their clubs as piggy banks; managers view their teams as temporary ‘projects’; players get treated like commodities.
We all see the ugly truth, but we love it nonetheless because football is the most beautiful distraction to everyday life.
Aside from Manchester United’s identity crisis, the landscape of the Premier League top-four in the post-Fergie era hasn’t changed an awful lot. City spent big to win the title but then seemed like they were in a desperate rush to give it back.
Mourinho came back, won a title, then made more enemies. Wenger still refuses to see his own weaknesses, Arsenal’s annual post-Christmas implosion can still be timed like clockwork, and next year is still going to be Liverpool’s one.
This season has been different though. In previous years, wannabe challengers were allowed to win a battle or two against the “bigger” clubs, but never the war. How dare they?
Leicester and Spurs have knocked City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool on their collective asses and cared little for the consequences. Leicester’s remarkable transformation from relegation fodder to champions elect is the exact opposite of the nature of modern football. This isn’t supposed to happen.
Of course, England isn’t the only league where the playing field is far from level.
When Borussia Dortmund looked like they were set to compete with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, the Bavarians flexed their financial muscles and cherry-picked two of their best players.
PSG’s grotesque wealth in France has alienated them from the rest of the country while in Spain, the Barca/Real duopoly is still being maintained by a woefully unequal distribution of TV revenue – Atletico’s title win in ’14 was akin to a miracle, but Simeone’s men are far from the paupers that Eamon Dunphy makes them out to be.
There’s always a bigger fish in the sea.
Football finances are designed to maintain the rule of the elite. Even the latter stages of the best club tournament in the world, the Champions League, is starting to develop a depressing look of familiarity with each passing season.
Yes, clubs can rise up the ranks and mount some sort of a challenge, but they’re never expected to maintain a league title campaign.
Money talks, but football needs Leicester to win the title. Why? Well, it’s the equivalent of sticking two fingers up to the established order and providing fans with some hope that the big-boys are untouchable.
The most impressive thing about Leicester’s march to the title is that their wins have become run-of-the-mill. We’re almost shocked if Leicester don’t pick up three points. Once again, it’s worth remembering that this time last year, they were scrapping for their Premier League survival.
This year we watched on and wondered when they would fall away from the top, as if their presence as leaders was an insult to the bigger clubs. Leicester didn’t care.
People balked at the decision to replace Nigel Pearson with Claudio Ranieri – that famous Gary Lineker tweet might be reappearing on your timeline this weekend – but the Italian has excelled while other managers have failed.
Ranieri never indulged in Martinez/Rogers levels of spoofology when he had to analyse his side. He also refused to hide behind some abstract ‘philosophy’ like Van Gaal.
It’s testament to the Italian that his unshakable faith in men like Robert Huth, Wes Morgan, N’Golo Kante and Shinji Okazaki has been rewarded – further proof that Ranieri doesn’t care how his side win, once they do.
Paging Arsene Wenger.
Claudio Ranieri? Really?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 13, 2015
The Foxes might have relied on the 1-0 scoreline in recent weeks, but this assumption that they’re primarily concerned with defending is doing their attacking talents a massive disservice.
The PFA Player of the Year, Riyad Mahrez, is the epitome of the cliche “you’d pay to watch him” because he frequently does that rare thing in modern football, he runs at defenders with pace. 17 league goals and 10 assists for the remarkably skillful and diminutive Algerian.
Jamie Vardy has probably given every single defender nightmares at one point this season, 22 league goals in 34 games is a further indication of his incredible rise through the ranks of English football, but there’s far more to the Foxes than just these two.
Danny Drinkwater’s metronomic passing has been the perfect compliment to Kante’s endless energy and wonderful ability to read a game and Christian Fuchs must surely rank just behind the French midfielder as the signing of the summer.
Danny Simpson might count himself unlucky to miss out on the PFA Team of the Year and as for Schlupp, this time five years ago he was playing for Brentford at Griffin Park. He could be lining up at the Nou Camp or the Bernabeu next season.
When you watch Leicester, it’s clear that there’s a very visible plan in place, both on and off the field, for the whole club (just like Spurs). Can you say this about Manchester United? They’re stumbling around in the dark and leaning heavily on the checkbook for answers. Reputations, wages and controlled possession are no substitutes for hard work, commitment and a devastating counter-attack.
Their clever recruitment policy stands in stark comparison to the money that has been absolutely squandered by Van Gaal, Rodgers and other Premier League managers.
The overall value of Leicester’s starting XI that beat Swansea 4-0 last week was £30.78m; still cheaper than what Liverpool paid for Christian Benteke.
I’ve no doubt that Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal will spend money to bridge the gap on Ranier’s men during the summer, but that’s still no guarantee that it’s going to work. Klopp’s revolution at Anfield will also see him go into the transfer market, while Pep Guardiola will galvanise City.
That’s next season though. We’re talking about the current one, and there’s only one deserved winner of the title.
How fitting is it that the most remarkable Premier League dream could become a reality at the Theatre of Dreams?
2016 is going to be remembered as the year that ‘The Foxes’ weren’t caught by the chasing pack.
