Who is doing very well at Nantes it seems. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/16/claudio-ranieri-tinkering-nantes-football-ligue-1
It was a massive achievement to win the EPL...all kudos to them. However, it made them get ideas above their station and it was this that caused them to panic and sack Ranieri. He was a good manager and not entirely his fault that they dropped to their natural level.
Indeed. They could have capitalised on the Premier League success and made a permanent step-up. Instead they wasted it. A year and a bit on they are back in also-ran territory. The truly successful sides are only there or thereabouts to this day because they recognised that their first success was a pivotal moment. Leicester had a real opportunity and they blew it.
They were never going to make a permanent step up imo. Just one of those dream situations which happens once in a generation.
They should still be buzzing. Even if they go down, they should still be well happy. Once in a lifetime that achievement.
That's easy for you to say. They were never going to make it permanent is just as easy to say that they were never going to win the thing in the first place. If you limit your dreams you are sunk before you try.
It's easy to say because it's almost certainly true, based on all the evidence available, something like that is extremely unlikely to happen again in the next 20 years minimum.
The problem Leicester have is the same one we have, and all the other clubs not owned by mega billionaires. FFP is a farce and it allows the “big” clubs to pay players far more than we or Leicester can. One of the key components in Leicester’s title-winning season was N’golo Kante, and he was lured to Chelsea where he won another title straight away. Riyad Mahrez will probably leave in January, no doubt to be followed by Albert Steptoe, Shinji Okazaki, and Kasper Schmeichel. Whoever you appoint as manager you cannot cope with your best players wanting away. Leicester had the perfect storm in having the right team and manager in place and all the other title challengers having a season off. I agree that could happen again to another club, but the way the Premier League is structured the following season would result in the vultures circling. Until the football world comes to its senses and caps wages/makes FFP work properly/shares TV money more fairly etc. etc., the haves and have nots will remain pretty much the same, with very few changes.
FFP feels like it was literally thought up by the biggest clubs to ensure the status quo of those biggest clubs.
Tough on Shakespeare who's 4 defeats were arsenal, Chelsea, man United and Liverpool. Ah well, to be or not to be.
I agree, which is why I don't give a toss about football apart from Southampton FC, because it is structurally uncompetitive. But, and here's the biggie... NEVER SAY NEVER.
