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FAIRY TALE
OR
FAIR ENOUGH
?
LE I CE STER C I TY ’ S
PREMI ER LEAGUE TR I UMPH
By Timothy Mottram
LEICESTER CITY HAVE WON THE PREMIER LEAGUE.
There is no journalist in the world who could have predicted they would be writing
these words at the beginning of last season. Replace “won” with “been relegated
from” and you get a picture much more representative of what most were feeling
back in August last year.
The Foxes’ win is the most shocking, yet most endearing, sporting story in Premier
League history. Even the brazen and baffling 1978 win by newly promoted
Nottingham Forest pales compared to what has just happened.
The odds against them were truly astonishing. The bookies had them at 5000-1 for
the win. They may have well made it a million to one: even their most die-hard fans
would not back them seriously. The reasons for such long odds reflect the state
of Leicester at the beginning of the season and the endemic oligarchical system
in place.
Over the past decade, only Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City have
won the league. Sometimes Liverpool and Arsenal get a sniff, but for a minnow like
Leicester to get anywhere near the top, they would have to pole-vault over huge
clubs like Tottenham and Everton. Ridiculous.
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