Foxes focused on fashioning another fairytale
After watching their team complete a soccer miracle in May, Leicester City fans are cautious about writing off the Premier League champion’s hopes of a fairytale repeat.
But manager Claudio Ranieri knows that won’t be easy.
Ahead of the Foxes’ season opener at Hull City on Saturday, the amiable Italian used a typically colorful analogy to emphasize his point.
“The big teams are ready to fight for the title and we are ready to defend it,” he said.
“But we know it is a different gap now. Last season we did something unbelievable,
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but now the big teams are back. Now we have to fight. Our target is 40 points, then see what happens.
“Of course the big clubs are stronger because they can’t have a mistake again. They lost one season, and in the life of those big teams, such a thing only happens once in a lifetime.
“I am very curious. All the world is curious about what will happen with Leicester. I think the bookmakers have to make it 6,000-1 now.
“It is impossible. It is more difficult than last season. It would be easier for ET to come to Piccadilly Circus!”
Ranieri’s squad has a clean bill of health ahead of the trip to Humberside, with Riyad Mahrez expected to start.
The Algerian winger has been at the center of intense speculation about his future, with strong claims in France he is keen to leave for Arsenal.
“Never has Riyad come to me and said, ‘Coach, I want to go’ — because I’ ll kill him before he tells me this!” joked Ranieri, making a strangling motion.
“It’s not a problem. When there is all this attention around your name, it’s because you are doing well. The speculation is normal. He is a big player and he needs to feel there are other teams and managers who want him.”
Hull could hardly be going into the new season in worse shape after an offseason of uncertainty at the renamed KCOM Stadium.
Promotion back to the top flight in its first attempt, albe- it via the playoffs, could have been used as a platform for progress, but the resignation of popular manager Steve Bruce, following an apparent breakdown in his working relationship with vice-chairman Ehab Allam, put a stop to that.
With Hull also up for sale and the subject of takeover talks with a Far East-led consortium, the state of limbo has persisted.
Former assistant manager Mike Phelan will be in charge on Saturday after a failed attempt to try to lure Chris Coleman from his job as Wales manager.
So far Phelan has not signed any players to add to a squad already severely deplet- ed by injuries and weakened by the departure of key midfielder Mohamed Diame to Newcastle United.
Goalkeeper Allan McGregor, defenders Alex Bruce and Michael Dawson and winger Moses Odubajo are all longterm absentees.
Phelan hopes the team he puts on the pitch can manage to thrive in the face of adversity.
“You’re going into a new season having earned the right to be in the Premier League and we shouldn’t forget the work that was put in last year to get us up,” he said.
“I think the players have come together and been a close unit over the last few weeks.”