Leicester City’s march to the English Premiership title has been rightly hailed as one of the greatest stories of a sporting underdog in history.
To have created such a turn around not in a one off game where anything is possible but to do so over a whole season of 38 games is incredible.
Here are six lessons that we might take from what has happened…
#1 Anything is possible
Obvious in hindsight and one of those truisms that is always trotted out by fans and managers at the start of any season. That has now been given decades more life.
#2 Bookies are rubbing their hands
The crazy notion of Leicester winning has been defined by reference to bookmakers betting odds from the outset. Leicester were 5,000/1 and there are stories emerging of so many successful punters, including one member of an Garda Siochana that backed them that the bookies will have a serious payout to make in the coming days.
Worry not for them. This will encourage more to put money on the ‘once in a lifetime’ win and that is what bookies make their money from.
#3 5,000/1 is a thing of the past
London, Wicklow, Carlow and Waterford are all 2,000/1 to win this season’s All Ireland Football Championship. The biggest odds on anybody, including Bournemouth or Middlesborough winning next year’s title are only 1,000/1. Once bitten…
#4 Martin O’Neill’s Connections
This is the biggest upset of all time in English soccer. The previous biggest upset was Nottingham Forest coming straight up from the old second division and winning the title in 1978. O’Neill is the only player with a strong connection as player and manager to the two upset sides. Could he have journalists scrambling for the secret sauce with an Ireland win at the Euro’s?
#5 Ranieri
Being a manager is generally a thankless, if extremely lucrative pursuit. Claudio Ranieri has been hailed by all as a ‘decent guy’ and as the magic element in Leicester’s rise, yet only 17 months ago he was manager of Greece when they lost to the Faroe Islands in the biggest reverse upset in Fifa ranking terms of all time.
#6 Personal redemption
Striker Jamie Vardy has been the touchstone of this team’s rise. He will likely form a key part of England’s assault on the Euro’s. Yet only a few short years ago he was being substituted after an hour of his matches in non-league football so he could make it home to fulfil curfew obligations as part of a sentence following an actual assault outside a pub.
Create your own magic moments in soccer by joining us for the inaugural Sport for Business Company Fives one June 24th. We will have a full ‘Euro 16’ style tournament with group and knock out stages followed by a barbecue, fun and games and crowing the best company five a side team in Dublin for 2016. Click here to find out more…
