5 , 000-1
Dilly ding, dilly dong.. it’s only the greatest football story ever told
IT was the season that famously defied all logic.
Leicester City, the former relegation candidates who had just stayed up, were 5,000-1 to lift the title. Yet what unfolded was a season like no other.
A season which would capture the global imagination and thrill football fans all over the planet.
Yes, it really did happen, Leicester won the Premier League – Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong.
Claudio Ranieri’s side only lost three games as they continued their form from their Great Escape under Nigel Pearson, when they won seven of their last nine.
But they were improved by the astute, bargain signing of N’Golo Kante from Caen for £5.6million in August 2015 – a masterstroke.
The energetic France midfielder (with the Premier League trophy, right) helped the Foxes switch to 4-4-2 and his tackling prowess setup counter-attacks for Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez (both above).
Ex-City striker and coach Kevin Phillips, said: “I remember the first day Kante came in and I saw him sitting in reception on the couch.
“He had a rucksack on and I thought he was one of the academy kids – that is no word of a lie.
“I said ‘Morning’, and he smiled as he always smiles. Next thing he is out there on the training ground with the first team. I am thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’ It is not very often I am bigger than someone!
“But once that whistle went and we started training – I thought, ‘Wow’. He was phenomenal, even the players were like, ‘Who is this guy?’
“If you took an extra touch, bang, he was on you. He was in tackles here, there and everywhere,” added Phillips (right).
Even those in the thick of it, like club historian John Hutchinson, admit he and fellow Leicester fans could scarcely believe their eyes.
He said: “Whenever you saw anyone on the streets of Leicester or someone came up to talk, within that conversation there was always one word which I probably heard more that season than ever before – unbelievable.
“People would just come up to you without any reference to football or context and say, ‘Unbelievable’. Fans were hoping for a mid-table finish and the fact they finished as champions was unbelievable.
“Gradually, as the season developed, feelings went from disbelief to excitement to cautious optimism to genuine hope. By the end, there were people from all around the world taking an interest. Even Americans now know how to pronounce Leicester.”
With Kante bossing the middle, City ended up winning the league by 10 points as Tottenham faltered.
It saw the Foxes lift the trophy amid incredible scenes as Ranieri’s Italian compatriot, opera star Andrea Bocelli, serenaded a packed King Power Stadium.
Ranieri (right) kept the pressure off with canny management, as he stressed the need for 40 points and then gradually increased the target. He was feted as City’s triumphant Roman emperor when 240,000 people turned out to celebrate with an open-top bus parade.
But the entire side were heroes, from ever-presents keeper Kasper Schmeichel and captain Wes Morgan, to PFA player of the year Mahrez.
Former factory worker and nonleague striker Vardy amassed 24 goals as he scored in a record 11 successive Premier League games.
A drilled low effort against Manchester United live on TV in November 2015 eclipsed Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record.
Hitman Phillips, who won the European Golden Boot in 2000, added: “I spent a lot of time working with Jamie.
“I tried to get him to pass the ball into the net a lot more, rather than using pure power.
“If you look at the goals he scored, some of them were excellent – passing them into the side-netting, not smashing them down the keeper’s neck.”
Phillips watched Leicester secure glory and sporting immortality from afar after moving to Derby in September 2015 to coach.
He chuckled: “What an idiot, me leaving after two months! But no one would ever have guessed they would go on and win the Premier League. What they achieved was incredible.”
It was literally the stuff of Hollywood, and filmmakers currently producing a movie won’t struggle with material for the script.