Sports season is on and the level
of exhilaration and suspense is palpable. Be it the invincible IPL of India or
the Formula 1 racing nothing enthuses young and old alike like sports. With the
biggest sporting extravaganza, Rio Olympics, poised to start in couple of
months, sports enthusiasts are geared to relish extraordinary stories of grit,
determination and intense toil. In the meanwhile, the spectacular success story
of Leicester City, Football Club, of English Premium League (EPL) created
ripples in the football by clinching its maiden Premier League title. Described
as “Fairy Tale Premier League Win”, the unusually taunt and avaricious football
pundits are singing encomiums of Leicester City. Truly, the meteoric rise of
the EPL club, precariously hanging at the cusp of the relegation zone last
year, surprised everyone with their miraculous rise. In fact the club gained
entry into the premier league two years ago.
Leicester City’s phenomenal
triumph is a story of underdogs humbling the high and mighty. Till now the “Big
Four”- Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal of English
Premier League (EPL) largely dominated the game, receiving bountiful
sponsorships. With their franchise shops spread across the World, they reaped
the unbounded love of football enthusiasts. Indeed even the biggest scramble
for the prized Premier League rested with the Big Four. Since its institution
in 1992, barring a rare instance of Blackburn Rovers winning the title in 1995,
Premier League title was largely held by the quartet. With two more matches to
play, Leicester team assembled for £57 million, has convincingly mortified the
top order clubs. The amounts invested in building the clubs as per recent study
is as follows: Tottenham (£159m), Arsenal (£231m), Liverpool (£260m), Chelsea (£280m),
Manchester United (£395m) and Manchester City (£415m). Leicester is fourth
lowest in payroll. With Chelsea drawing the match with Tottenham Hotspurs on
Monday, Leicester emerged as title winners.
EPL is the most highly watched
premier league in the World and enjoys an unparalleled viewership. It has been
largely observed that Champions tend to come from the top four of the previous
season. Considering previous season’s performance of Leicester City, when it
occupied 14th position out of 20 no one predicted this remarkable
turnaround. Most believed that the club might soon be relegated and demoted to
second tier of English clubs. Last year August England betting firm Ladbrokes
offered 5000-1 odds on Leicester winning the game. Even otherwise, only thrice,
since the World War II, had the teams promoted from the second tier went on to
win the title-Tottenham Hotspurs in 1951, Ipswich Town in 1962 and Nottingham
Forest in 1978. In 2008-9 Leicester was lying in the third tier English
Football Pyramid, the League one, but went on to scale the pyramid remarkably
faster. The stupendous success of the team is all the more special in this
modern era of football league since dollars are splurged on clubs. With a
deluge of finances streaming through the top-notch clubs, the parity among
clubs has become unbridgeable. Statistics from the soccer enthusiasts indicated
that from 1950 through 1980, teams rose for lower tier to top tier eight times
and only twice from 1981 to 1995. Clearly indicating that modern day football
unlike the yester years is quite different and dramatic. Leicester’s phenomenal
success is indeed very special as in contemporary times, steady rise of club in
table is inextricably linked to the finances flushed into replenishing the team
with high-order players. With EPL ambitiously signing deals international
broadcasting cable channels for obscene amounts, dollar rush is bound to play a
huge role. Increasingly, clubs supported by owners with deep pockets and harboring
frenzied passion might eventually make their way to the top.
Defying all these odds,
Leicester, an English Club, though not financially emaciated, scrupulously
assembled committed, shrewd, hard-hitting, and disciplined chunk of mature
players. Having lost its best midfielder and with team manager just fired, Leicester
made a new beginning last year by hiring Coach Claudio Ranieri, who recently had a
disastrous stint as in charge of Greek National Team. Similar to proven success
of the Money Ball (a sabermetric approach for selection of players constrained
by limited payroll, experimented and tried by the Oakland Athletics Manager
Billy Beane), armed with hard working players from unproven leagues the team
spurred into action (of course, there is no evidence of employing similar
approach by Leicester City). The EPL season which lasts for 38 matches from
August to May every year, witnessed a steady and consistent performance from
the team’s players. With every week, the team began to operate as a functional
unit and steady rose to the top four places of the table. Unlike the
traditional defensive style of playing characteristic of EPL clubs, Leicester’s
game was quite aggressive. Simultaneously, with Big Four stumbling to find
their momentum and grappling to unplug the inconsistencies, Leicester breezed
past to the top with heroic performances. Last year Champions Chelsea suffered tumultuous
set back with the team struggling to play together as a unit, Manchester United
and Manchester City began with dispirited performances. Experts attributed
Leicester’s success to the lackadaisical performances of the top teams. Thus
they consider Leicester’s unexpected rise as an anomaly. In reality, the
stellar performance of the teams’ trio-English Striker James Verdy, Algerian
Winger Riyad Mahrez and midfielder N’Golo Kante accomplished the unthinkable.
Riyad Mahrez was awarded the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of
the Year.
Simply put it’s a story of
underdogs hoisting themselves to the pinnacle of accomplishment unanticipated
by football savants. The victory has another angle to it, for it is a source of
great pride to South Asians. Leicester is owned by Thailand billionaire Vichai
Srivaddanaprabha who invested in it since its acquisition in 2010. Leicester, a
city in the Midlands of England, home to Asian migrants were overjoyed at the
brilliant performance of its club. For several decades, the game was largely
dominated by clubs from London and Lancashire while Midland teams fought hard
to find their place in the League. With this title win, soon the stands would
be dominated by the ethnic minorities supporting their team. Leicester diligently managed finances and
spent £36.6 million against Manchester United’s £285 million to build an
incredibly strong team. Besides, Leicester employed innovative sports science,
medical and coaching team. The team suffered fewest injuries as they coopted
new techniques like use of cryotherapy ice chamber that made recovery easier. For
long, billions dollar worth English League was dominated by Europeans and
Leicester’s triumph now has strengthened Asian association with the game.
Despite its stellar success,
Leicester may not be accorded the same status are the Big Fours. But clinching
the title breaking past its incipient financial barriers is truly iconic. While
it may be even hard for Leicester to repeat its stint, the path tread,
logistics chartered and the difficulties endured can be a true inspiration. Success
wasn’t a matter of chance for Leicester. It was an outcome of outperforming the
big teams in grueling games that spanned over nine months of the football
season. Through its incredible display of grit and perseverance Leicester
redefined operational logistics of a successful football team. As several
doctrines roll out deconstructing the secret formula for remarkable success-
the spirited slogan of “foxes (Leicester) will never give up” alone might have
steered the unheralded club to frontiers of accomplishment. With Rio Olympics
all set to be inaugurated in its finest splendor in August, undaunted tales of
determination, grit and hard work of exemplary sporting personalities would
energize and reawaken our latent spirits. Till then, the spirited
accomplishment of little-known English club will continue to inspire. For
inspiration is contagious….
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