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Leicester’s success seems like a Hollywood film – and is great box office for the League

Weekend Dossier: In Leicester’s rise there are shades of Forest’s 1977-78 triumph under Brian Clough

Glenn Moore
Friday 04 December 2015 23:55 GMT
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Jamie Vardy is just one of the many success stories in what has been a remarkable first half of the season for Leicester City
Jamie Vardy is just one of the many success stories in what has been a remarkable first half of the season for Leicester City

Richard Scudamore and his tight-knit team will be cracking open the beers in the basement bunker at Premier League HQ on Saturday afternoon, tuning into an illegal live feed on the 64-inch TV and cheering on Leicester City at Swansea.

Well, maybe they won’t literally be doing that, but as they hobnob at various grounds, or go Christmas shopping with the family, many of the League’s key people will be following events from the Liberty Stadium hoping that Leicester continue their remarkable season.

There is a widespread belief that the Premier League favours big clubs. It is probably true that they tend to get the benefit of contentious refereeing decisions more often, whatever Jose Mourinho believes. That, though, is down to human nature, with some referees subconsciously influenced both by larger crowds and an awareness of the controversy that follows a decision given against a big side.

The structure of the Premier League actually favours the smaller clubs, with 14 required to agree any major rule change – which is why the division will not be cut to 18 teams to help those in the Champions League or why the Scottish Old Firm will not be invited in. Either development would mean fewer mid-ranking clubs in the top flight and they will not be voting for that.

As for the staff, they support a variety of teams, often outside the League they serve (Scudamore, the executive chairman, is a Bristol City fan). All, though, are aware that Leicester’s rise is a wonderful advertisement for the brand.

The Leicester City story fits one of the most hackneyed and successful tropes around, one at the heart of films from Seven Samurai to Dodgeball, The Lord of the Rings series to The Dirty Dozen. It is only mildly exaggerating to describe the Foxes as the classic rag-bag bunch of misfits, fading stars, wide-eyed hopefuls and honest journeymen enjoying their season in the sun. Rags-to-riches Jamie Vardy has had most of the attention, but he is not the only one with the sort of backstory beloved by Hollywood.

Marc Albrighton, as he movingly described in these pages last month, is lifting a family scarred by tragedy after his partner’s mother, and her partner, were murdered in the Tunisia terror attack in June. Kasper Schmeichel is emerging from the enormous shadow left by his legendary father, Peter. Wes Morgan is enjoying a late flowering to his career, having not played in the top flight until he was 30; Robert Huth an Indian summer, having been discarded by Stoke. Then there is Claudio Ranieri, “Tinkerman” no more, enjoying an extraordinary return to England after his career seemed over, having been fired by Greece for losing to the Faroe Islands.

Ranieri has been coaching for nearly three decades, in five countries, but while he has won four promotions and six cups he has never won a top-flight league title. It seems improbable he will this season, but not impossible. There are shades in Leicester’s story of Nottingham Forest’s 1977-78 triumph under Brian Clough. As the recent book and film, I Believe in Miracles, underlines, they, too, were something of a rag-bag bunch when Clough first pulled them together.

Some resent that claim and they did become a very good team, but only after several players reached a level they had thought would elude them. Well-organised, with a superb team spirit, they were underestimated even after becoming League champions. Could Leicester emulate them? Are Huth and Morgan the new Kenny Burns and Larry Lloyd? Riyad Mahrez a latter-day John Robertson? Danny Drinkwater another John McGovern? City already have, in Vardy, a former non-league player at centre-forward, as was European Cup-winning Garry Birtles (though it was Peter Withe who led the line in the title-winning team).

It is a wildly romantic dream. Gary Neville spoke for many when he anticipated City would finish eighth, but it is not just the neutrals who would love to see the improbable realised. The selling point of the Premier League overseas is fourfold: the matches are exciting, the stadiums are full and atmospheric, they involve multinational teams, and on any given day any side can beat any other.

The latter is the key factor. All major leagues are now multinational, albeit not to the degree the Premier League is, but two of them, Serie A and Ligue 1, are not serious rivals. Italian football has been eclipsed, wounded by crowd violence, match fixing and ageing stadiums. The French league is a one-team competition, a selling league apart from Paris Saint-Germain, with middling attendances. The Bundesliga and La Liga are exciting, and play to large crowds, but Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich very rarely lose. Here West Bromwich can beat Arsenal, West Ham win at Manchester City, Swansea defeat Manchester United, Crystal Palace win at Liverpool and, this season at least, lots of teams beat Chelsea.

The problem is this equality is only for 90 minutes. The title is won by a small elite. The Manchester clubs or Chelsea have won every championship since 2004; add Arsenal and the last outsiders were Blackburn Rovers in 1995. A Leicester success would demolish that criticism.

It would also make the league even more attractive to sponsors and outside investors. For an outlay estimated at £100m, half the sum Yokohama Tyres is believed to have paid for having their name on Chelsea’s shirt for five years, Leicester’s Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has received a resounding return, not least through renaming the stadium after his King Power duty-free brand. There will be others thinking “Maybe I don’t have to buy a top-six club”. So the shout goes up at Premier League HQ: “Forza Foxes”.

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