The Foxes have won the pennant! The Foxes have won the pennant!!

redpaul1

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
2,170
Reaction score
189
Location
London, UK
The 5,000/1 outsiders, in a league unashamedly set up to favour the so-called 'big four' at the expense of the rest, & who only last season, with the same group of players, only narrowly avoided relegation from the league altogether, have somehow defied those odds and won the English Premier League title with two rounds of matches left to play.

Somewhere in heaven, Ukey Dave is dancing a jig.

NY Times: Leicester City completes unlikely rise by clinching Premier League title
 
Last edited:
It's really amazing. Truly like nothing else in sports that I've ever seen (USA Hockey Amateurs beating Russia was just before my time).
I'm a Man United fan since the late 90's, but I am very happy for Leicester. I only remember Leicester for Muzzy Izzet - who has one of theeeee best names ever for any sports player.
I think the closest thing we could ever get in the USA is if some small-school #16 seed won the March Madness college basketball tournament. Such a longshot. Such a great story/coach/team.
 
Not even Sylvester Stallone would have dared write a story like this.

One stat to illustrate Leicester City's status as financial minnows in the EPL. Their entire squad was assembled for less than what Manchester City (owner: the brother of the sultan of Abu Dhabi) payed for one single player (Kevin De Bruyne).

Their leading scorer, Jamie Vardy, was scuffling around in the minor leagues until age 25. Now, he holds the EPL record for scoring in consecutive games (11 in all); and he's expected to lead the line in the England team's campaign in this summer's European championships.

Their veteran manager, the so-called 'Tinkerman', Claudio Ranieri, 70, can now finally lose his 'nearly-man' tag. In almost 30 years of management, Ranieri had previously never won a top-tier title. His previous engagement, as manager of the Greek national side had ended in ignominy, sacked the day after Greece had lost at home to the Farøe Islands (open a map of the North Atlantic & get out a magnifying glass).

Is there a more astonishing against-the-odds story in sport? Not even Sylvester Stallone would have dared write a story like this.

For those of you who didn't know Ukey Dave, here's the man himself, in full-on LCFC fan mode:

 
It's really amazing. Truly like nothing else in sports that I've ever seen (USA Hockey Amateurs beating Russia was just before my time).
I'm a Man United fan since the late 90's, but I am very happy for Leicester. I only remember Leicester for Muzzy Izzet - who has one of theeeee best names ever for any sports player.
I think the closest thing we could ever get in the USA is if some small-school #16 seed won the March Madness college basketball tournament. Such a longshot. Such a great story/coach/team.

I do remember that USA-USSR game, very well, as it happens. I was living in Canada at the time! It is comparable, except the one thing I would say was that the USA only needed to play 8 games to take the title. Leicester had to play 36. On the BBC website, they were making comparisons with other unlikely champions. I think the most apposite comment was this, talking of Joe Johnson, a 150-1 outsider who won the world snooker championship in 1986, the biggest outsider ever to win the world title: "Odds of 150-1 make you a long shot. At 5,000-1 you are not considered a shot at all."
 
Last edited:
Greetings,

Big sports fan here, but I don't know the Foxes or the games mentioned. I do however know how great it is to have an underdog team win that you have rooted for as long as you can remember. So congrats to the fans!!

Ciao
 
True, it's so hard to compare the sports and draw comparisons, which makes it so ridiculous. And they've really won it going away. It's been decided for quite awhile too.
I think the thing that blows my mind is they were in the lower divisions not too long ago. The idea of relegation is not common for us here in the USA - and frankly, with all of the financial $ invested, and the guaranteed loss of that money if you were relegated - will never be.
But to go from the "minor leagues" so to speak, to winning the most competitive soccer/football league, with a bunch of cast-offs and misfits, is downright amazing.
It could be like taking a AA or AAA minor league baseball team and winning the World Series two years later. That's not even possible here in the USA, but that's a somewhat valid comparison.
I'm a big EPL fan and never would've seen this coming. Pretty awesome stuff.
 
i am thrilled!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wonder how many leicester city fans put a tenner on at the start of the season???! please mr betting shop man, can i have my 50 grand now? :rock:
 
Top Bottom