Leicester City: Could the Dream Continue?
By Nick, Sports Editor
Without a doubt, the 2015/16 fairy-tale of Leicester City winning the league will go down as one of the greatest underdog stories in sporting history.
They managed to become Premier League Champions against the 5000/1 odds and qualifying for any sort of European competition since the UEFA Cup (now known as the Europa League) in the 2000/01 season, in which they were eliminated in the first round by losing to the Serbian side, Red Star Belgrade. To ask a club like Leicester to replicate this again anytime soon would be a tall order.
Or would it be?
This season, Leicester have varied in form domestically, being threatened by relegation one week, and then thrashing top-four clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool the next.
This inconsistency has frustrated Leicester fans, with some asking why on earth Ranieri is trying to play new, complicated forms of football when quick, counter-attacking football worked so well last season?
The answer to this could perhaps be, insufficient replacements.
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that N’Golo Kanté was crucial to Leicester’s emphatic success last season, with extraordinary defending ability and work-rate. Kanté may just be the winning factor, as his £32million move to Chelsea in the summer transfer window has been crucial to the Blues current domestic success. A lack of a worthy replacement for Kanté’s vacant spot has left Leicester with a lapse in defensive performance, which could be the reason for the controversial sacking of Claudio Ranieri and the introduction of Craig Shakespeare in mid-February.
The Foxes performance in Europe this season, on the other hand, has been excellent. Progressing through the Champions’ League group stages in 1st position and beating Sevilla 3-2 on aggregate to make it through to the quarter-finals, the only English team still in the competition.
So could the fairy-tale have a new chapter?