What a year it has been for Leicester City. In case you have been living under a rock, Leicester were bottom of the Premier League last Christmas, and have just become the first team in Premier League history, and the first team since Norwich in 1988 and 1989 to be top of the league the following Christmas.
No one could have predicted this, not even Leicester City's owners. The mastermind behind the foxes success, Claudio Ranieri, has revealed that the ownes were afraid that the Italian would leave the club should they get relegated this season. He thinks that faith and trust is a big reason for why they have been so successful:
Two things were fantastic for me. One was to hear from my owner that he wanted in the next two years to maintain Leicester in the Premier League, then try to achieve the top places. The other was when his son asked me, ‘If everything goes wrong, will you stay with us in the Championship?’
I said, ‘Yes, I will stay here’. This was amazing for me because there was a big project but also they wanted me to stay even if everything went wrong.
A lesson for those sports clubs prone to jump on a manager after a few bad results - this is what can be achieved when the manager knows he has time to make his mark on a team.
