No-frills record of how Leicester got to soccer summit

ALMOST EVERYONE loves an underdog, except maybe those being beaten by the rank outsider. Sport is littered with stories of unlikely success, of great runs that defy logic. Yet surely, there are few that can come close to being as improbable as Leicester City’s run to the Premier League title last season.

Month after month fans of the ‘beautiful game’ predicted impending doom. They couldn’t keep going. The viewing public had seen these types of hot streaks before; as Christmas approaches, normality kicks in and a slow slide to a respectable finish ensues. Leicester, evidently, hadn’t signed for delivery of that script.

Someone was preparing for the best. Like most, ‘Leicester Mercury’ chief football writer Rob Tanner was sceptical about the new manager when he was appointed, and like most, he did not really anticipate the run continuing as it did, all the way to the title in May.

Despite his reservations, Tanner began a journey that would leave him with ‘5000-1 - The Leicester City Story’ - the first book, probably of many, published on what will go down in history, as the unlikeliest of fairytales. The publication was released on May 19, and City’s season finished just four days earlier.

As you might expect from a book that came to market just days after an event, there are limits to the information contained within. It’s a nice, simple read, detailing the season, match-by-match, delving into key moments that made the improbable possible.

Occasionally the author gives a brief background of the players and their history. Pretty much all of them seem to have been discarded as ‘not good enough’ at some point in their careers, and it left them with the collective tag of ‘misfits’. Access to players is obviously a problem but their stories might have been fleshed out a little.

Tanner is a local hack, so there’s not much complexity to this piece of work. It’s not going to cause the reader much confusion, it’s not going to have you reaching for your phone to Google a word, but it is competent, with few mistakes, given its quick route to market, and that fact alone is impressive.

One thing to admire about the author and his approach to the book is his honesty. Tanner doesn’t try to re-write history; he was sceptical about the appointment of Claudio Ranieri and he made his balanced, yet worried, feelings known in the smattering of blog posts within.

The use of his posts from throughout the season could be seen cynically as a way to bulk up a publication to get it out there quickly. There may be some truth to that but it certainly gives a more accurate impression of the feelings of the journalist and the club’s supporters at those points in the season.

The 300-odd pages are fairly well spaced out, as Tanner dots in results lists and current standings after every month of the season.

There will be a string of publications examining how an incredible chain of events led to one hell of an achievement. This book just touches the tip of the story without ever trying, or wanting, to delve in too deep.

For soccer fans it’s a nice read. Some will buy it, dragged in by the romance of a ‘Leicester’ winning the title, but realistically this book is no more than a nice keepsake for the growing number of City fans around the world who want an easy, no-frills record of the season as it transpired. DEAN GOODISON Visit The Book Centre on Wexford’s Main Street for the very best selection of sports books.