Uplifting tale of the Foxes who moved from middle England to centre stage...
SOME 90 miles north of London, some 90 miles south of Manchester, Leicester is slap bang in the middle of England and for long periods of their history, Leicester City have been just that: middle England.
This is a city whose motto is semper eadem — always the same — and in the central library The Story of Leicester grimaces early on: ‘It is sometimes said of modern Leicester that it is a place people sometimes go through to get to other destinations.’
Geographical ambiguity means that Leicester- born Peter Shilton represented both the South West and the North as a schoolboy. From Roman times — and Leicester is on the Fosse Way — this has been a crossroads town.
But not now. Befitting a place with a statue of Thomas Cook outside its train station, today Leicester is a destination, and eyes across planet football will be on it.
Around Europe, familiar names such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Celtic and Ajax top their leagues, but not in England. In England it is Leicester City and even if it proves to be for one week only, this unlikely achievement is to transform Leicester’s meaning. The middle has become centre stage.
This club that has never won the title or the FA Cup has invigorated the Premier League season so that Leicester City versus Manchester United — first v second in the Barclays Premier League — is a game that will be watched in over 100 countries, including Thailand, home of Leicester’s owners. In the club shop, Gordon Banks T-shirts look on as the letters V-A-R-D-Y are once again stamped on the back of a newly-bought kit. A poster on the door advises that the next three home games — United, Chelsea and Manchester City — are sold out.
After that it’s Bournemouth. In 2016.
Among memorabilia displayed in the King Power Stadium foyer is the leather ball presented to Johnny Duncan on Christmas Day 1924 after a 7-0 victory over Port Vale in which the striker scored six in a row — a nod to Jamie Vardy — plus some optimistic stickers from around 1980 which read: ‘Things Are Happening at Filbert Street’.
There’s also a seveninch club single on the Decca label from 1974.4. It’s called This Is The Season For Us.
It wasn’t. Leicester finished 18th, sold Shilton to Stoke and saw Midlands rivals Derby County become champions.
But perhaps the single is due a re-release. This could be the season for Leicester, not necessarily to win something, but to change perceptions, to move from middle England.
Given the last time Leicester topped the league was 2000 and the time before that was 1963, this is certainly a moment to treasure, to take stock. As happy manager Claudio Ranieri said on Thursday: ‘I think we deserve this moment.’ Ranieri’s smile and gracious demeanour are part of this fresh Leicester appeal, like Vardy’s streak of goals goals, Riyad Mahrez’s swerve and Danny Drinkwater’s improvement. Arsene Wenger says there is ‘something special’ about 2015 Leicester City; Vardy was applauded by the opposition fans at St James’ Park a week ago.
‘I think we’re more popular,’ says Ranieri, ‘but I hope that in the next seasons it’s more, more and more. That means we have grown up very well.’
Then he diverted to add: ‘We love our job and it’s important that we show our love on the pitch. This is my idea.’ Love does not often get a mention in pre- match press conferences and realism returned when the 64-year- old Italian was asked if prominence would aid in futuref recruitment. ‘I think so,’ Ranieri replies. ‘If you stay around the top I think players understand, seriously, our project.
‘But these are only words. I want something concrete.’
Leicester City v Man Utd will be watched in over 100 countries
‘Leicester is not a football town like Liverpool’
says Paul Taylor, co-author of club history Of Fossils and Foxes. ‘Our best-ever league finish (1929) was as runners-up. We’ve been to four FA Cup finals and been runners-up four times.’
Fossils is not quite as energising a nickname as Foxes, but it is a connection to the club’s founding in 1884, which either came after a Bible class held by a Reverend Parsons in the old Emmanuel Church or in a family shed on Fosse Road. The upshot was ‘Leicester Fosse FC’.
Presumably early supporters shouted: ‘ Come on Fossils!’ But they were doing so in a town growing on textiles and shoemaking in which rugby was already established. The rugby club took Fosse’s first ground off them, paying more rent, and there has long been tension.
‘Leicester is not a “football city” like, say, Liverpool or Newcastle,’ says John Williams, senior lecturer in sociology of sport at the University of Leicester.
‘Apparently (in 1971) when (then manager) Jimmy Bloomfield arrived at the club he described it as a “rugby town”.
‘It is clearly a place divided. In the city and to much of the north it is mainly a football place.
‘In the affluent southern suburbs and the surrounding villages it is more of a rugby place.
‘Our surveys show there are very few people who actively support both codes. LCFC has never won the league title or the FA Cup, so has no defining history. But recent League Cup successes under Martin O’Neill raised the club’s profile. The new Thai owners suggest better times ahead, but Leicester Tigers are also building for the future, so it is not a clear road for Leicester football, even in its heartland.’
Leicester Tigers have won rugby’s European Cup twice; Leicester City have won the League Cup three times — 1964, 1997 and 2000.
Yet just as Leicester Fosse, on the brink of bankruptcy after World War I, became Leicester City, two years after O’Neill guided Neil Lennon and Co to a League Cup victory in 2000, and to eighth in the Premier League, Leicester City were in administration. Shilton has said that the club ‘ were always pleading poverty’ in the 1960s and 70s and Frank McLintock can recall painting the Filbert Street floodlights in the week of the 1961 FA Cup final.
Even when in 1968 Leicester broke the British transfer record for the one and only time to bring Allan Clarke from Fulham for £150,000, they sold him a year later to Leeds for a 10 per cent profit.
Maybe it’s why Brian Clough once saluted O’Neill: ‘Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper has got to be a genius.’ Banks, Shilton, McLintock — all were sold. So, too, Lennon, though initially Peter Taylor had Lennon, Robbie Savage and Matt Elliott as part of the team that drew 0-0 at Sunderland to go top of the ‘Premiership’ in October 2000.
It lasted one match — then Manchester United won at Leicester.
After that Lennon went to Celtic, Leicester finished 13th, ITV Digital collapsed and Leicester went down just as their new stadium went up. Taylor was sacked. He was the first of 12 successors to O’Neill and it was not until Nigel Pearson — first time around — arrived when the Foxes were in League One that things began to turn. The club had become a revolving door and the cast included Milan Mandaric, Martin Allen, Gary Megson and Ian Holloway — all in a year. Then in 2010 Mandaric met Thai businessman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, sold the club for £40million and after Paulo Sousa and Sven Goran Eriksson had a go, Pearson returned.
So did Leicester, back to the Premier League for the first time since 2004. Last season, improbably, they survived and have had 15 league wins since April — though none has come against a Champions League club.
So today is a test and it is followed by Swansea, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City.
‘A lot of people are curious,’ says Ranieri, ‘about whether after this Leicester stay at the top or return to the middle. I am very curious also.’
It has been a long time since anyone was this curious about Leicester City. It is a long time since they have been this interesting.