It wont be long until someone does another 'Leicester'

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SambaStyle

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How did Leicester win the league in the first place? they silently collected super talents in Mahrez, Vardy and Kante for a combined (€10.5 M). The elite teams also had a poor year, giving them the perfect storm.

Now, Premier League teams (even the small ones) are able to sell their players on their own terms for insane prices, it took Chelsea £115 million to prize a 1 1/2 season Caicedo from Brighton. Real Madrid and Barcelona are less of a factor now in poaching talent too.

Look at how Bayer Levekusen in Germany have totally revolutionized their team in one transfer window spending a net €12 M in doing so. There are teams in the PL from mid table and up who already have some of the building blocks, they just need a special window or two now to challenge. Imagine West Ham with Boniface (€20.5 M), Grimaldo (free) and Xabi Alonso (First real managerial appointment).
 
It took from the invention of gambling until 2016 for anything 5000/1 to win anything.

It’ll probably be a similar timeframe until it happens again.
 
Blue Til Death said:
Total freak, aided and abetted by the Spuds bottling it big time and the rest of the top teams all having a shit season at the same time. Fair play to Leicester though, fully deserved as every PL title is, you can’t blag 38 games ….!
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But you don't need to blag 38 games; you just have to be "above decent" and perform consistently for most of them, and then if you get very favourable refereeing decisions in the close ones or the ones you need a leg up in then "it's a BINGO!"

Boosted confidence played a big role in that tile win, decent players with a smattering of world class players began to believe they could actually do it, and whenever Vardy did his trademark flip in the area a penalty was awarded.

There's something that still (sorry to sound like "Spit the scouse" here, but) doesn't feel right to me about that season.
 
the-ecstacy-of-eight said:
But you don't need to blag 38 games; you just have to be "above decent" and perform consistently for most of them, and then if you get very favourable refereeing decisions in the close ones or the ones you need a leg up in then "it's a BINGO!"

Boosted confidence played a big role in that tile win, decent players with a smattering of world class players began to believe they could actually do it, and whenever Vardy did his trademark flip in the area a penalty was awarded.

There's something that still (sorry to sound like "Spit the scouse" here, but) doesn't feel right to me about that season.
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The “big clubs” didn’t see them as a threat and played into their hands. They were a total counter attacking team.

Had more teams sat off them, they’d not have won the league. They didn’t and they won the league.

It is rare that you buy 2 players from low down the French league that turn into superstars. Kante and Mahrez were just that.

The rest of the team was just compact and hard to play through.
 
Blue Til Death said:
Total freak, aided and abetted by the Spuds bottling it big time and the rest of the top teams all having a shit season at the same time. Fair play to Leicester though, fully deserved as every PL title is, you can’t blag 38 games ….!
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Correct. It was the perfect storm for them, and they took full advantage of it. All credit to them for it. But what are the odds of the "big 6™ all being underwhelming in the same season again? Pretty long, at a guess. Spurs had it in their hands that season, and spursy-ed it. In reply to the thread title, it's not going to happen again any time soon. If you were going for someone outside of said" big 6" right now, you'd probably go for Newcastle, given the money they have (FFP notwithstanding). But they won't be 5000/1, probably not even 1% of it.
 
We’d have won it that season had news of Pelle’s impending departure not leaked out. We’d just ground out a win in a really tough game at Sunderland to go top I think and then the news broke and we lost to Leicester and Spurs at home in quick succession.
 
Blue Til Death said:
Total freak, aided and abetted by the Spuds bottling it big time and the rest of the top teams all having a shit season at the same time. Fair play to Leicester though, fully deserved as every PL title is, you can’t blag 38 games ….!
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100% fair play. Still say morgan and huth were given free reign to foul their way through games. Honestly think the prem league decided to turn a bind eye to assist the fairy tale
 
Bluesince1979 said:
100% fair play. Still say morgan and huth were given free reign to foul their way through games. Honestly think the prem league decided to turn a bind eye to assist the fairy tale
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I think it was Blobby Madley reffing at ours. Finally booked Morgan and made a point of counting out to show it was his fourth offence. Did same when he booked Zabba but only counted to two
 
I'm not sure about that. Leicester were one of the relegation favourites.

People would say a team like Brighton would be doing a Leicester if they won it but it wouldn't be similar at all. Brighton are already in Europe, easily in the better half of teams in the league and are a handful for anyone on their day. If they sort their defence out and add a bit more quality, they'll be a very good outfit.

So if Brighton were to do it, it wouldn't be the same at all.

For any team now to do Leicester, it would havr to be someone like Bournemouth or Forest. That's why the odds were 5000/1.
 
5000/1 tells you everything you need to know... Massive inside trading making a lot of doe for certain people in Thailand and elsewhere. Peds for the players, other teams players underperforming and a bit of help from the refs. Won't be long until it happens again I'm sure. Maybe be united next. But in all seriousness maybe Brighton or Brentford with their squeaky clean owners
 
Crooked_rain said:
I'm not sure about that. Leicester were one of the relegation favourites.

People would say a team like Brighton would be doing a Leicester if they won it but it wouldn't be similar at all. Brighton are already in Europe, easily in the better half of teams in the league and are a handful for anyone on their day. If they sort their defence out and add a bit more quality, they'll be a very good outfit.

So if Brighton were to do it, it wouldn't be the same at all.

For any team now to do Leicester, it would havr to be someone like Bournemouth or Forest. That's why the odds were 5000/1.
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It’d have to be a club that played shit football too.

The rags are probably the closest thing these days.

or maybe Brentford.
 
Bluesince1979 said:
100% fair play. Still say morgan and huth were given free reign to foul their way through games. Honestly think the prem league decided to turn a bind eye to assist the fairy tale
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I think it was more that no referee wanted to be the one who burst the media's Leicester Fairytale narrative. Can you imagine the outcry in the press if a referee hadn't given the obligatory penalty for a Vardy dive and Leicester finished second by a point?
That meant that every game they played was always tilted in their favour and after their great start to the season that pushed them through in the second half, especially with everybody else playing so badly.
Their entire gameplay was to run really fast, initiate contact and throw themselves over for either a penalty or a free kick. If it was a free kick then Huth and Morgan would step up with one grappling the nearest defender and the other climbing on anyone near them to get a head on the ball.
I said to my Mrs around Christmas that year that with Leicester staying in and around the top and challenging for the league then they would eventually have to start playing to the same rules as everyone else but that never happened.
Same thing happened when Liverpool were gifted a league title, a combination of referees being scared/unable to make a decision unless someone flopped to the floor because of uncertainties about the use of the newly introduced VAR (a big help to teams who's gameplan was already to run fast, initiate contact and throw themsleves over in and around the box), a positive press campaign allowing them to play to different rules and a team with no shame who knew how to bend and break the rules to take advantage of the referees insecurities.
Spurs fans would be livid about the Leicester league win if their own team hadn't gone for their usual self inflicted implosion that year.
 
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