PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE SEASON
Just ahead of Leicester team-mates Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo
Kante,Jamie Vardywas the story of the season and ended the
campaign as a leading member of England’s Euro 2016 squad.PREMIER LEAGUE MANAGER OF THE SEASON
Greeted with scepticism by many when appointed last summer,
Claudio Ranieriguided Leicester to unprecedented new heights.PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM
OF THE SEASON
Kasper Schmeichel(Leicester)
Hector Bellerin(Arsenal)
Robert Huth(Leicester)
Toby Alderweireld(Tottenham)
Aaron Cresswell(West Ham)
N’Golo Kante(Leicester)
Mesut Ozil(Arsenal)
Dimitri Payet(West Ham)
Riyad Mahrez(Leicester)
Harry Kane(Tottenham)
Jamie Vardy(Leicester)LEICESTER CITY
Midfield master
...N’Golo KanteAnd his laid-back style and direct
tactics proved the perfect fit for
Leicester.
“English attack, Italian defence” was
his mantra, and Leicester had some
of the lowest possession stats in the
league as the Italian encouraged
no-nonsense defending and quick
counter-attacks to strikerJamie Vardy.
Ranieri presided over a perfect storm
of factors that combined to push the
Foxes to an unprecedented triumph.
His tactics worked well with the club’s
clever signings and Leicester also
benefitted from not being stretched
in European competition, while their
rivals struggled to repeat their form
of the previous season.
Virtually the entire Leicester team
were “rejects” from other clubs.
Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez
had been turned down by many
French Ligue1 clubs for being too
sleight before Leicester paid Le Havre
£400,000 for him. German centre-
back Robert Huth joined from StokeCity after a loan spell at Leicester.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, the
son of Peter, was on Manchester City’s
books as a teenager but lost out toJoe
Hart; Danny Drinkwater did not play
forManchesterUnited’sfirstteam
and was loaned out to Championship
clubs before Leicester came calling.
Then there was right-back Danny
Simpson, who was deemed surplus to
requirement at Queens Park Rangers,
left-back Christian Fuchs, who was
out of contract at Schalke, and Marc
Albrighton, who joined in 2014 after
being released by Aston Villa.
StrikerJamie Vardy drifted in
non-league football after failing to
make the grade at Sheffield Wednesday
and his story is now, reportedly, the
subject of a Hollywood movie.
N’Golo Kante was not a reject as
such, costing £5.6 million from Caen,
but Leicester chief scout Steve Walsh
beat a number of clubs to his signature.
Walsh joked: “We’re able to play threein
midfield – Drinkwater, with Kante eitherside” and the midfielder played his
wayintoFrance’sEuro2016side.
However, not all Leicester’s signings
proved successful, as record buy
Andrej Kramaric went out on loan
to Hoffenheim and Swiss midfielder
Gokhan Inler barely featured all season.
Leicester were also fortunate to
experience few injuries and benefitted
from excellent work by medical staff
who helped those players who did get
injured to recovery quickly. Their heavy
pressing game required high levels of
energy, which they managed to maintain
through the whole campaign.
For Leicester’s owners, the
Thai businessman behind the King
Power group, the title triumph was
totally unexpected. They had invested
heavily to get the team out of the
Championship and faced questions over
sponsorship deals that allowed them to
bypass financial fair play regulations.
But there can be no denying the
fairy-tale nature of Leicester’s success,
which is unlikely to ever be repeated.toanunprecedentedtriumph
Bargain buy...
Riyad Mahrez