THE FOXES COMPOUND ESL FAILURES WITH CUP GLORY
Tom Ball
As a Chelsea fan, Saturday afternoon hurt a lot. On the other hand, it’s undeniable the success story my team had to fall at the expense of. Leicester City are about to finish above ESL founding members; Spurs and Arsenal for the second season running and have added an FA Cup to the Premier League title they won 5 years ago. It’s quite the story for a club that scraped survival from the top flight just 6 years ago.
Leicester have elbowed their way into the country’s elite while the others cowardly plotted an escape from such challenge. All of those supposed 'big six' clubs have seen the Foxes take at least 3 points off them this season. It begs the question, How on earth have they done it? Their title-winning campaign triggered a 5-year long raid of their club. Harry Maguire, Ben Chilwell, N’golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez are just some of the names that swapped Leicester for ‘bigger’ clubs since the miracle of 2015/16. Losing players of this calibre whilst sustaining excellence has to be impossible for a club like Leicester.
Despite that success under Claudio Ranieri, many will say that this team they have today is better. More technical, physical, powerful and full of confidence. Although they have been ravaged by injuries all season, every single man who has been called upon to come in has stepped up. 19-year-old Luke Thomas looking like a man with five years experience and fresh off a sumptuous volley at Old Trafford, was only in the team this season because of James Justin’s horrific injury. Wesley Fofana became a sensation when he stepped in for Çağlar Söyüncü. The Turk was imperious for the midlands club last season and his absence was expected to be a problem for Brendan Rodgers. Whilst we have seen the the most uncharacteristic dip in form from Jamie Vardy, outcast Kelechi Iheanacho has suddenly lit up the King Power in compensation.
The injury to Aymeric Laporte seemed to derail Manchester City’s title defence last season. This season, we have seen Liverpool look a shadow of themselves in the absence of Virgil Van Dijk. In the last week, Manchester United have looked lost defensively without Harry Maguire. Leicester have this incredible tendency to plug every hole like it’s not even there. What Brendan Rodgers has achieved at the club alongside its exemplary owners is something that should be celebrated across the football landscape.
It was celebrated on the pitch as Kasper Schmeichel escorted chairman Aiyawatt 'Top' Srivaddhanaprabha onto the Wembley grass to celebrate with his players. No disingenuous token thumbs up from a directors box or treatment of players as employees, just camaraderie from a man who was forced to take the reigns of a football club after the tragic death of his father just two-and-a-half years ago. Finally, seeing a success that stands as retribution and a tribute to the late Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
The power of the ‘big six’ is still very much present and more attempts on a heist on football will inevitably be made in the future. But for now, we should celebrate this day as a middle finger to the absentee owners. Owners like Joel Glazer, Stan Kroenke, John W. Henry, Daniel Levy, Sheikh Mansour and even my Roman Abramovich should take notice of Leicester’s triumph. While their fans march in anger outside their state of the art facilities, Leicester City are getting all the monetary return they would like, just by doing this thing called running a football club, as a football club. Some will say that they got lucky winning that Premier League title 5 years ago and have reaped the rewards ever since. However, many successful people will say you make your own luck and those people tend to be businessmen, ironically.
Let's not kid ourselves, these owners are very aware of Leicester's success but instead of standing up to challenge they look to run from it. They see their clubs in free-fall but all they know is the money in their pocket. They don't understand that employing an accountant as Director of Football is a recipe for disaster. They have manifested this complex that all problems can be solved if you have all the money in the world. However, Football is unlike anything in the business world. It runs deeper than structure and capitalism. Football clubs are institutions that are older than 99% of the people living today. Manchester United fans sent a message two weeks ago. These clubs are spiritually owned by their fanbases and they will have their way. Owners like 'Top' thrive of that structure, that connection, that passion. He has risen to the challenge and is coming out on top, no pun intended.