Better even than Roy of the Rovers

04 May 2016 - 09:57 By Archie Henderson

We are all Leicester City fans today. How could we not be? Even the most cynically dispassionate will share in the moment of admiration, if not the sheer joy, that came about on Monday night when Tottenham Hotspur, the only team with a chance of catching Leicester, finally fell at Stamford Bridge.The 2-2 draw with Chelsea left Leicester seven points ahead of Spurs at the top of the English Premier League and unassailable. With two games to go, only six points are still on offer.It's a sporting story that makes even the fabled Melchester Rovers come across as dull and unimaginative.And Rovers was a team that won nine league titles, eight FA Cups and three European Cups.Their captain, Roy Race, scored 481 goals until a helicopter crash in 1993 claimed his famous left foot.He was kidnapped nine times - seven while on club tours abroad - still a record in English football.But Roy of the Rovers is kids' fiction. If Leicester City's saga had been suggested as a story for Tiger comics, it would have been dismissed as too outrageous and unbelievable.Just over a year ago Leicester City, known as the Foxes, were desperately seeking a way of staying up in the hen-house of Barclay's Premier League football, where the financial rewards are no chicken feed.The Foxes were in last place with nine games to play and seemed certain to be relegated. Then, a week after King Richard III's remains, which had been dug up in a Leicester car park, were reinterred in the city, they beat West Ham through a goal by another King, Andy, the Welsh international who joined the club at 15 and is its highest-scoring midfielder.His most recent goal came two months ago in a draw against West Brom.The win against West Ham, on April 4 last year, was the turning point. Leicester went on to win seven of their last nine games of the season and survived in the Premier League.When new manager Claudio Ranieri arrived at the club inJuly he announced that his goal for the team would be to reach 40 points, generally regarded as the minimum needed to avoid relegation.It was the Italian's 16th job as a manager, a task he had performed at the other 15 clubs without success. His most recent job was with Greece, who fired him after their embarrassing defeat by the puny Faroe Islands. Who knew why Leicester's Thai owners had hired this loser.But Ranieri had a secret, and it was pizza.Ranieri quickly realised that Leicester could score goals. Three of them came in the opening game of the new season from players who would turn out to be symbols of the rise of the Foxes.In their 4-2 win over Sunderland, two were scored by Riyad Mahrez, who had been bought from a second division club only the year before, and another by Jamie Vardy, who had been playing fifth-tier football just three years earlier.Ranieri quickly realised, too, that the Foxes needed to improve their inconsistent defence.A renowned defender in his playing days, the manager promised the team pizza if they could keep an opponent goalless. Soon afterwards they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 and boxes of pizza arrived.Since then there have been 14 deliveries to the dressing room, compliments of the manager.Today Ranieri might be planning something a little more lavish...

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