Leicester City Champions.

[John Arne]

Fucking hell.

http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/67/590x/Jamie-Vardy-621233.jpg

[Giggles]

Unreal. Has to be the biggest shock in sport ever, what a man Ranieri is.

[Kikó]

It's pretty football manager. Incredible achievement.

[Baz]

Who has Ranieri signed, if anyone?

[John Arne]

Enjoy the party, Leicester. Looks like Selby will be World Champ soon, too.

[Magic]

Incredible. 38 games, not a cup run or anything. Wow. Incredible, yes better than Forest/Derby/Blackburn etc.

[Giggles]

Enjoy the party, Leicester. Looks like Selby will be World Champ soon, too.

He needs told as soon as he seals this.

[Giggles]

Actually is Selby even a Leicester or football fan? Maybe he doesn't give a shit.

[Lee]

Actually is Selby even a Leicester or football fan? Maybe he doesn't give a shit.

He is. First thing he asked for during the interval yesterday was what our result was.

[Mike]

Can't wait to see John Terry put on his full Leicester city kit.

[Pleb]

Called it lads :drool: :cool:

[Lee]

Now Selby. :cool:

[Yevrah]

Most incredible thing I've seen in football that.

[Ian]

What.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Those scenes at Vardys? house are great.

Okazaki seems so out of place.

[John Arne]

727243789744660481

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I can't stop smiling at Okazaki's face, it's amazing.

[Giggles]

Is Ranieri anywhere in that?

[John Arne]

727245394288238594

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He's in the back snorting crack off a prostitutes belly.

He deserves it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Is Ranieri anywhere in that?

Of course not. He'll be having a glass of wine, with his wife, with a tear in his eye, like the legend he is.

Nice guys finish first.

[Vim]

Is Ranieri anywhere in that?

https://i.gyazo.com/bd8789a18893d724cb2ca5f844b92f85.png

[Giggles]

Of course not. He'll be having a glass of wine, with his wife, with a tear in his eye, like the legend he is.

Nice guys finish first.

It's about time one did.

[John Arne]

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/85794410-claudio-ranieri-coach-of-juventus-drinks-wine-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7Qc2euORjNZdmkyPM7wpYB572cMrY Dv9eZX2qMlM9IyUuWqlgdQ7fJIQjC6fIhrB43Q%3D%3D

[Weaver]

Who has Ranieri signed, if anyone?

Kanté, Inler, Amartey, Gray, Dyer.

How many of those were already agreed before he became manager (13th July) I don't know. Fuchs, Okazaki and Huth were.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

This Ranieri montage by Sky is brilliant.

[Magic]

Thai hookers are going to get an absolute beasting this summer.

[Giggles]

Who can change Magics avatar and username then?

[Vim]

Thai hookers are going to get an absolute beasting this summer.

van Gaal's organising a training camp in Bangkok as we speak.

[Giggles]

727244245816479747

[Byron]

One of my best mates is a Leicester fan, sitting in a pub in Portsmouth. He's just texted me to say he'll not pay for a drink all night at this rate.

In any event, this is absolutely incredible. I can't think of any sporting events in my lifetime that come close. How does this compare to Montpellier?

Leicester City. Champions. It's hard to imagine it.

[ItalAussie]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/05/premier-league-2015-16-season-predictions

Eleven football writer pre-season predictions, eight of whom predicted that Leicester were getting relegated.

EDIT: BBC had then in 19th

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/33751507

[Jimmy Floyd]

Sky are right to highlight that Villa game. Came out of absolutely nowhere to win 3-2. The game that basically buried Villa as a football club and made them believe.

[Lee]

I wish I hadn't had a drink. The city centre looks packed. The party on Saturday will be amazing. I most certainly won't be driving in.

[Lee]

Iconic commentary my arse. It was so obviously scripted and he was desperate to say it.

Villa was probably the biggest game. Liverpool and Norwich felt big too. As did the equaliser against West Ham.

[Spoonsky]

Of course not. He'll be having a glass of wine, with his wife, with a tear in his eye, like the legend he is.

Nice guys finish first.

Do you know what he's actually doing? In Rome having lunch with his 96 year old mother.

Last season I thought football was dead, this has come out of absolutely nowhere. It's the kind of thing which just doesn't happen over periods of more than a month.

[John Arne]

For some reason Chappers on 5Live just keeps asking Leicester why they aren't crying.

[Jeet]

Mark Schwarzer becomes the first player to win back to back premier leagues.... Without playing a single minute!

[Magic]

Do you know what he's actually doing? In Rome having lunch with his 96 year old mother.

Last season I thought football was dead, this has come out of absolutely nowhere. It's the kind of thing which just doesn't happen over periods of more than a month.

Must admit I agree. It was nauseating. Back to normal next season I fear.

[Giggles]

I'd be happy to call it a day with the league at that. It's peaked and we'll never see its like again.

[Jimmy Floyd]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/05/premier-league-2015-16-season-predictions

Eleven football writer pre-season predictions, eight of whom predicted that Leicester were getting relegated.

EDIT: BBC had then in 19th

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/33751507

The amount of disdain for Ranieri from the various writers is quality as well.

He has ALWAYS been underestimated. The classiest man in football and knows exactly what he's doing. Sometimes you can just be unlucky. Until you aren't.

[GS]

It's restored my faith in football. Genuinely.

[Magic]

Hopefully someone shat in Phil McNulty's humble pie.

[GS]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/05/premier-league-2015-16-season-predictions

Eleven football writer pre-season predictions, eight of whom predicted that Leicester were getting relegated.

EDIT: BBC had then in 19th

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/33751507

From Daniel Taylor in your link:

"Most excited about: I Believe in Miracles, the Jonny Owen documentary-film about Nottingham Forest, 1975-80, and the kind of implausible success story that could never happen again."

What timing that was.

[Lee]

Just realised I'll get to go to Wembley for the Community Shield as well. Not been to the new one. :cool:

[John]

Fucking great. I'd rather they won it at the end of a game they were involved in, but when Leicester are winning the league it's probably too much to ask that the method also be perfect.

[Lewis]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.

[GS]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.

I think it is the greatest thing in football in the British Isles, certainly.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.

If it was Spurs or even West Ham then fine, but Leicester have no business getting anywhere near the top four with that squad.

[-james-]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.


You're right, and they wouldn't have done it if they didn't have 3 secret cheat players, but to do this over a season makes it the greatest thing ever. They've pissed it and everything.

[Boydy]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.

You're still drunk.

[Lee]

I couldn't give a shit where this sits in sporting history to be honest. We've won the fucking league.

[Giggles]

Something that struck me earlier was that, due to City's lack of success, Leicester as a city must have its fair share of Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, etc fans among the population. Some of those must be either gutted or scrambling tonight.

[Lee]

It has. When I was at school there were only two or three at most supporting Leicester in a class. We were outnumbered by Forest fans, for fuck's sake.

[Giggles]

It has. When I was at school there were only two or three at most supporting Leicester in a class. We were outnumbered by Forest fans, for fuck's sake.

Rub it up as many as possible :drool:

[Spoonsky]

https://twitter.com/FuchsOfficial/status/727242055995392000

Is this video broken for anyone else?

[Lee]

I'm sat here pissed and beaming at the image of the league table on Sky Sports News. Fucking amazing feeling. We are the CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND.

[ItalAussie]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.
Bit of a catch-22 there. It's not great that they won the Premiership because they had players who were capable of winning the Premiership? I mean, sure, we know that now. Nobody even suspected it at the start of the season though, which is clear from the lack of esteem in which they were held going forwards.

By your metric, there can be no great wins. The second a squad wins, it turns out that the squad was good enough to win, so ho-hum.

This is the most unexpected league win I've ever seen or read about. It's vastly more difficult to surprise your way to the league, because you can't do it as a small series of one-offs. Less-heralded teams have probably won cups, but that's orders of magnitude less difficult than winning leagues.

[Danny]

727240082617409536

[igor_balis]

Lewis you contrarian dickhead :D. Though I am somewhat impressed by your steadfast commitment to sneeringly dismissing anything that goes against the status quo. I suppose people like you are the only reason people from poor backgrounds consistently vote for Tory governments, aside from collective retardation.

[Shindig]

Its not even the greatest shock in football. At no point in Greece's 2004 win was I honestly confident they'd 1-0 their way to victory.

[Giggles]

Its not even the greatest shock in football. At no point in Greece's 2004 win was I honestly confident they'd 1-0 their way to victory.

A short cup run can't compare to a 38 game league season.

[Shindig]

It's more like a 50-game run. At what point does that cease to surprise? Greece playing games out on the hope of landing a head on a corner is more ridiculous,

[Lewis]

Bit of a catch-22 there. It's not great that they won the Premiership because they had players who were capable of winning the Premiership? I mean, sure, we know that now. Nobody even suspected it at the start of the season though, which is clear from the lack of esteem in which they were held going forwards.

By your metric, there can be no great wins. The second a squad wins, it turns out that the squad was good enough to win, so ho-hum.

This is the most unexpected league win I've ever seen or read about. It's vastly more difficult to surprise your way to the league, because you can't do it as a small series of one-offs. Less-heralded teams have probably won cups, but that's orders of magnitude less difficult than winning leagues.

It's the most impressive and unexpected league win I've seen, but I just don't think it's up there with what Brian Clough did, or what Celtic did (the European Cup, rather than covering up the child abuse), or what Greece did, or even what Jose Mourinho did with Porto. If you actually think about how money is spent and utilised, rather than just lololol City spent ten times as much, then my comparison is fitting. This sort of thing is a lot more common in other sports, and will become more common in [English] football.


Lewis you contrarian dickhead :D. Though I am somewhat impressed by your steadfast commitment to sneeringly dismissing anything that goes against the status quo. I suppose people like you are the only reason people from poor backgrounds consistently vote for Tory governments, aside from collective retardation.

I just put things into perspective.

[wullie]

Almost exactly eight years ago Leicester went down to League One because Carlo Nash stopped them scoring the goal that would keep them up ahead of us, trying our best to go down by being battered at Charlton. The next day I went to Fosse Park all pleased with myself, which is why this has happened.

[Max Power]

So proud of my team. Lowest position to highest in seven years. All the absolute shit I've seen us churn out and we've only gone and won the league.

It hasn't fuly sunk in and I don't think it will until Wes lifts that trophy on Saturday night.

[ItalAussie]

It'd have been great to see them win to clinch it, but having a home match/coronation is a decent outcome nonetheless.

[Mellberg]

Edit: Meant to quote Jim from previous page on Leicester 3-2 Villa.

Huge turning point for both clubs that I've highlighted before. From then on in our confidence was destroyed and we were no longer even in games, let alone picking up points, whilst it gave them the belief to come back every week for a while and build from there.

In a way Tactics Tim helped Leicester win the league.

[John]

Leicester have been the most consistent team by some way, seven points clear and not so much sprinting for the line as already off on one of those helmet-doffing, high-fiving home-run trundles around the baseball diamond, waving to the crowd, taking the cheers, ball safely spiralling off above the bleachers into the blue.


It is only in the last few weeks that the realisation has dawned Leicester haven’t just been edging this – they’ve been running away with it, already out there on the victory lap of honour, ambling round the bases, high-fiving the bench, ball safely dispatched above the bleachers.

Lol at that. I've said before that he recycles things more often than most, but that's an impressive case of getting paid twice for one job.

[Reg]

If he can rephrase it and get away with it, why not. :cool: Jonathan Wilson is the real recycler...albeit for multiple websites/magazines.

[Bartholomert]

I'm still playing it down. The amount of money floating about in the Premiership creates an effective level playing field beyond the richest few, and when they are all in various states of shambles excellent recruitment and coaching has the same sort of importance that is does in those salary capped sports where you get different winners every year. So well done, but it's not the greatest thing in football ever.

What tops it in the history of (all) sports?

[elth]

I have a sneaking feeling the great Forest teams are more remarkable than this Leicester one, which has nailed the timing more than the talent I think. Getting lame duck efforts from Chelsea and City *and* having United still in a post Fergie funk is very fortunate.

Still an astonishing thing to witness, mind, and even if it doesn't match Forest it's still the greatest sporting shock for a generation.

[Spoonsky]

Lewis is right in that this will seem much less impressive if someone like West Brom goes and wins the league next season. I just don't see that happening, or anything like this happening in the major leagues for a good decade at least.

Nothing in American sports, for example, could come close because there's too much artificial parity enforced by salary caps etc.

[Spoonsky]

The closest contemporary comparison is probably Donald Trump. :eyemouth:

[ItalAussie]

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7080181.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Cool-Runnings.jpg

These guys. But if they won the gold medal.

[ItalAussie]

It's the most impressive and unexpected league win I've seen, but I just don't think it's up there with what Brian Clough did, or what Celtic did (the European Cup, rather than covering up the child abuse), or what Greece did, or even what Jose Mourinho did with Porto. If you actually think about how money is spent and utilised, rather than just lololol City spent ten times as much, then my comparison is fitting. This sort of thing is a lot more common in other sports, and will become more common in [English] football.

I just put things into perspective.
I think you're totally wrong, and the entire reason is that leagues are inordinately more difficult to win through upsets. You actually have to be better than the other teams that season, rather than merely close enough to the same ballpark to win on the day.

Cups just don't even register on the same radar as a league win. As a comparative reference, Albania are 500-1 to win the Euros, so the odds had Leicester as ten times less likely than that before the season started.

[Lewis]

Stuttgart won the Bundesliga in 2007 having finished ninth the previous season (in an eighteen team league, where they survived by ten points but finished thirty-two points behind Bayern), and Montpellier went from fourteenth to champions in France. It's incredible, but it's not exceptional, and the way football is at the moment, with the proliferation of money and expertise creating an effective level playing field beyond Chelsea and Manchester, should provide some context to their achievements. The salary capped sport I am most familiar with is rugby, where teams can go from bollocks to league leaders over a decent summer, and I'm led to believe that it is basically the same story in the American sports. Throw the traditional giants into crisis, and your run is clear. You still have to be brilliant, and if you are you will earn a great deal of credit; but Celtic won the European Cup with a squad of players born within noncing distance of the ground, and Brian Clough went from promotion to European Champions in two seasons.

As an aside, are odds of 5000-1 actually sensible, or are they just there to create interest and entice mug punters? I ask because Paddy Power will currently give you 50-1 on Alex Ferguson being the next England manager, which is a prospect much less likely (or certainly not a hundred times more likely) than a team winning a competition that they are actually part of.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Earlier in the season you called it a freak.

[Lewis]

I was watching it through a fish tank.

[John Arne]

This Leicester achievement is great - but I don't think it's anywhere near as 'amazing' as Forest, but I do think it's better than Greece winning a few games to win Euro 2004

[Spammer]

I disagree. The difference in money back then wasn't nearly as vast as it is now. What Leicester have done is fucking crazy.

[niko_cee]

Liverpool back then were far superior to anything Leicester have had to overcome this season though, in relative terms.

Trying 'to place things in context' is such a load of shit. It's just a miraculous achievement. Whether it's enough to get you halfway to saintdom or not, who knows (well, I guess the pope)? Stephen Frears was quite good on Newsnight last night, save for the fact that he kept saying "soccer".

If you were trying to put a downer on it, you'd say there are very often 'lesser' clubs who fly under the radar and have a good season, aided, in my view as an embittered Liverpool supporter, by the fact that most teams don't take them seriously throughout the season and subject them to game-raising wanker style performances. They usually fade away and end up in the lower European places, so Leicester have obviously gone quite a bit better than that, but, at the same time, the established powers have done quite a bit worse, collectively, than at any point I can recall. Again, on the embittered front, in 13/14 they'd probably have come 4th with this season's efforts.

In short, just celebrate it for what it is. Which is an amazing thing. It doesn't have to be the greatest story ever told.

[-james-]

https://gemsandrhinestones.com

Pretty good read by Coral's head of football on why they're down loads. Seemed counter intuitive to me but it makes sense.

[John Arne]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMmh5Why3No

:drool:

[Lewis]

That Leicesterscepticism was such a good move.