#360view: United Leicester ensured Hollywood ending to incredible EPL win

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  • Leicester won their first Premier League title.

    Presumably the producers formulating scripts for the proposed Jamie Vardy movie didn’t have his living room planned as the dramatic finale to a season of staggering achievement.

    Old Trafford last Sunday would have added cinematic grandeur; the King Power provided raw emotion of a jubilant home support; while Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season is a genuine comeback story through the eyes of manager Claudio Ranieri.

    Then again, the house in Melton Mowbray which became the focus of the sporting world within minutes of Tottenham’s failure to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge was fitting in its own way.

    Because with Vardy surrounded in delirious celebration by his team-mates – including it should be noted Gokhan Inler who has played all of 195 league minutes this season – it vividly displayed the driving force behind the Foxes unprecedented title victory.

    This has been a tight group forged on team spirit and a collective will perhaps unparalleled in the history of the Premier League, maybe even football itself.

    With 38 years separating the last first-time winners of England’s top flight, there has been an elite cabal of contenders created primarily through the power of money.

    The last five different champions: Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal all have turnover in excess of £250m and transfer budgets will into nine figures each season.

    Leicester have spectacularly crashed this group, sticking out like a sore thumb. And yes, they are no paupers, owned by Thailand’s King Power International Group allowing such extravagant purchases as £7m on Shinji Okazaki from Mainz and £5m to Caen for N’Golo Kante. But central to their triumph have been a tight-knit group of players, woven into a system cultivated over 25 years of management by Ranieri.

    In many ways them coming together was a happy accident. Individuals have been scouted and analysed for their specific attributes while it would be fascinating to see the reasons behind Ranieri, whose time in English football almost a distant memory, was chosen to replace Nigel Peason; a manager with vastly different characteristics. But all the elements reacted in a perfect display of chemistry.

    There is also a perfect irony in how Ranieri has led this team given the reputation he earned at Chelsea as a ‘Tinkerman’, a manager too insistent on changing his starting XI from one game to the next.

    This season the Italian has started 18 players with just 12 making 10 starts or more. They’ve gotten extremely lucky with injuries but every champion of every sport has needed a dose of fortune along the way.

    Another number stands out, emphasising their strength as a unit: 14 of their 22 wins this season have been via a one-goal margin, displaying their ability to win close games. You don’t do that with a fractured or dissonant dressing room.

    A tale of two halves

    • Games 1-17
    • Scored 37, Conceded 24
    • Games 18-35
    • Scored 27, Conceded 10

    The way Ranieri has managed to re-tune and adapt to the circumstances, with his players of course following suit, shows how prepared they have been to sacrifice the individual for the team.

    Games 1-17, taking them into mid-December, saw the Foxes score 37 goals and concede 24, their vibrant counter-attacking style catching many teams on the back foot.

    The next 18 matches, however, have seen a dramatic change in approach with 27 goals and just 10 conceded. Footballers, any sportspeople, naturally want to move forward, be more aggressive. It’s where the fun and enjoyment primarily lies.

    But Leicester’s players understood they were onto something special and bought into the wider picture of creating sporting history.

    That picture now being played out across the world in all its cinematic glory.

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