PREMIER LEAGUE HULL 2 IT’S FOX HUNTING SEASON
Relegation favourites Hull kick off the cull
IT is 105 days since those scenes of wild jubiliation that confirmed Leicester City as last season’s Premier League champions.
Let’s hope Jamie Vardy enjoyed his house party. And that every other Foxes’ player and fan had a royal blue blast too this summer.
On the evidence of this 90 minutes, it won’t be happening again. Not this season. Not a cat-in-hell’s chance.
For the alchemy used by Claudio Ranieri to bind together his merry band of brothers has disappeared.
The understanding, grit and skill that came together so magnificently just four months ago is sadly no more.
Disruptive
Every pundit – including this one – predicted it wasn’t going to last.
But perhaps we, and Leicester City’s supporters, did not expect it to disintegrate quite this fast.
It has not been normal times at the King Power. And the summer has been disruptive.
A succession of players have beaten a path to the chairman’s door to grab their slice of the financial windfall once Champions League qualification was confirmed.
A few of them – such as Vardy and PFA player- of the- season Riyad Mahrez have been linked with other, more prestigious clubs such as Arsenal and Barcelona.
And in a pre-season just 12 months ago which Lincoln City, Mansfield Town, Burton Albion and Birmingham City were the opponents has been replaced by something far more eye-catching.
This time it was Celtic in Glasgow, Paris Saint-Germain in Los Angeles, Barcelona in Stockholm and Manchester United at Wembley.
Add to that the absence yesterday of two mainstays of the title success – N’Golo Kante – who has quit for Chelsea – and the suspended Robert Huth and the history-making cocktail has been diluted massively.
But Leicester weren’t missing just Kante.
Vardy may have been on the pitch. But it wasn’t THE Jamie Vardy. He punched himself in the face after missing one first- half chance. Saved Ranieri one job at least.
It wasn’t the same Wes Morgan. In fact, it wasn’t the same Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Drinkwater...You could go through the entire Foxes’ side and find fault with every single one of them.
Vardy wasted chances. Mahrez flattered but didn’t produce. Drinkwater looked lost without Kante alongside him. Ditto, Wes Morgan and the absent Huth.
Perhaps more than this – and it was something upon which Hull City thrived – was the unspoken pressure that being top dogs brings.
Last term, Leicester were happy out of possession. They were comfortable