WIN AND TONIC
Fantastic Foxes step up once again to strike a blow for the beautiful game
IF YOU can’t join them, beat them.
Once again Leicester proved to be the tonic football so desperately needs.
We are at the end of a season in which 12 of the richest clubs met to put their self-serving, greedy needs above the unifying threat of the pandemic.
Nobody invited Leicester to these secret gatherings.
The European Super League project imploded but the sour taste remains.
So football was still in desperate need for a big win – regardless of the colour the ribbons were on the trophy.
The Premier League has already been claimed by the richest club in the world, Manchester City, and they will battle for European honours against the team that invented the notion of buying success in the modern era.
So the whole of football, not just Gary Lineker, seemed to cheer when Brendan Rodgers proved again if you are good enough, you are big enough – however quickly the elite want to pull the ladder up after them.
Chelsea strode about Wembley like a side that had been newly-upholstered by £250million of talent in the summer.
Thomas Tuchel has instilled a belief in them that they can dominate any team.
But matches continue to be decided by the team that scores the most goals.
While Kasper Schmeichel kept out two of Chelsea’s best efforts from Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount, Youri Tielemans fired an unstoppable belter that flew into the top corner and nearly as high into the Greatest Goals atWembley charts.
These days there is always time for a bit of VAR mischief but this time it conjured a new horror.
It allowed former Leicester player Chilwell to celebrate a late equaliser that was credited to him on the scoreboard even though Wes Morgan got the last touch. Then it ruled the moment out by the narrowest of offside margins.
“Chilwell, what’s the score?” rang out the taunting refrain of a live crowd – thank goodness they are back. Without them, it would not have felt quite such a seismic win.
“Success in terms of Leicester, to be disrupting the big clubs and be challenging and fighting, that makes us really happy,” said boss Brendan Rodgers, who coached at Chelsea and managed Liverpool but
CUP FINAL 2021
irrefutably ‘gets it’. “If we can jump into a Champions League place, that would be incredible. We are looking to establish ourselves in that hierarchy of the league but it is always going to be difficult.
“Financially we can’t compete with Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea and to some extent Arsenal and Tottenham. But strategically and economically, the club have shown amazingly off the field how their strategies have delivered.
“That allows a manager to come into the club and build a vision around the football which allows competitive.”
The money clubs don’t like being beaten for long.
When Leicester won the title in 2016, the Big Six bought their players. Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater all left. Will the same now happen? “I don’t know,” said Rodgers. “I know the direction we are going in but, Leicester, in the future, I’m sure will lose players. It is not something we think about so much. But it is the nature of the game.”
And why occasions Saturday give us all unnatural delight. us to be like such