I can't be doing with this. First of all - stand up and f**king applaud Leicester City for this incredible, mind blowing achievement.
And I can't be doing with that. I think this club should be taking a good look at itself, in light of what has happened. Along with the other big clubs and megabuck spenders. There we are, told for 20 years that you can't succeed without spending so much that you risk breaking FFP, then Leicester take the pis out of everyone by doing it on a budget of €50m, with a bunch of journeymen, loanees, and freebies that nobody else wanted. Furthermore, they have done it with a coach in his first season in the job, with someone else's players and even a 4-4-2 formation, and there we are with another league season in tatters, struggling to keep up with the West Hams and Southamptons. If that's not embarrassing, what is?
I look at Leicester tonight and the yearning has never been stronger. USE THEM as inspiration of what we can do if we all pull together in one direction. We f**king did it a couple of weeks ago against Dortmund when EVERYONE - players, staff, supporters, neutrals even, were willing us on. If we could cultivate that evening, that moment, that solidarity and transpose it onto a whole season, then we will do something just like Leicester have done. They've had to dig into unbelievable reserves of belief that I'm sure they didn't know they even had and they found it and ran on it for a whole season.
Reserves? They've been 3-5-7, at times 8 points clear this year. They've got over the line 2 games early. What reserves did they need? It's not like they were going into the last two games trying to play catch up on goal difference. Nobody else in the run in put them under serious pressure, so they could afford a stumble or two and still comfortably get over the line.
Their achievement is also a kick in the teeth to certain coaches who value transfer figures over team spirit. And it's a victory for a combination of good team spirit, solid leadership, and man-management of squad personnel that every team needs, regardless how big they are or how much they spend, and something not every coach in the league has.
As for us, we don't have to aspire to be Leicester, we just need to do our jobs properly, coaches, players, board and backroom staff. When that is done, we'll be ready to challenge for the big prizes more consistently once again.
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