Just fantastic – I don’t think it will sink in for a while
At around 10pm last night the population of the East Midlands city tore itself away from the TV screens to go into party meltdown as the Foxes celebrated not only the fi rst top- fl ight title in their 132- year history but arguably football’s most unexpected championship triumph of all time.
Just a year ago, remember, the celebrations were born out of relief at avoiding the drop back to the Championship after a late- season ‘ Great Escape’ under former boss Nigel Pearson.
Jamie Vardy’s Footballer of the Year award yesterday, a week after
Riyad Mahrez picked up the Players’ Player of the Year prize, ensured a
triple celebration for a squad
assembled for just over £ 20million –
buttons compared to their
big- spending rivals.
Winger Marc Albrighton admitted
the stunning transformation under
Claudio Ranieri from 5,000- 1 title outsiders at the start of this season
to champions is almost impossible to take in.
“It is such a fantastic achievement
I don’t think it will sink in for a
while,” he said.
“Without a doubt we’re happy to
win it without playing. Don’t get
me wrong, it would have been great
to win it at Old Trafford in a
fantastic stadium on Sunday but it
wasn’t to be. I’m just happy to
take it any way as long as it happened.”
Albrighton, right, whose former club Aston Villa have been relegated, could not bring himself to watch Tottenham’ s previous game against West Brom but was glued to the screen with his team- mates as the action unfolded at Stamford Bridge last night.
“If I’m playing I don’t feel any nerves but as soon as I sit down and start watching a game, it’s a nightmare, it’s terrible,” he said.
“When Spurs played last week I was in a restaurant in Lichfi eld with my fi ancee, oblivious to it. The week before when they played Stoke, I watched that. I saw them roll Stoke over and that was pretty hard to take. So last Monday I said we’d go out for a nice meal, and I left my phone in the car. I got back and saw the result and was delighted. “But we had to watch the Chelsea game. When you’ve got the chance to win the league you can’t ignore it. It wasn’t nice – but it was in the end.” Albrighton paid tribute to the mental strength and character of Ranieri’s squad, who have lost only three of their 36 league games. “We have got that never- say- die attitude and that has won us a lot of points this season,” he said.
“Early on this season, for instance, we got draws at Stoke and Southampton when we were 2- 0 down in both of them. So that showed the character we had and we’ve continued to show it.
“We went behind on Sunday at Old Trafford. It’s a daunting place, a big pitch and the fans are behind Manchester United, but credit to the lads, we carried on going, got the equaliser and held on for a point.”
Former Foxes stalwart Steve Walsh, who played more than 350 games for the club between 1986 and 2000, was just relieved that the wait was over.
“We’re been waiting and waiting and the longer it has gone on the worse it has got,” he said. “It has been killing us. Football can twist and hurt you, so we had not been stupid enough to think it had been won before it was.
“But what a fantastic achievement. If you had asked me at the start of the season, ‘ Are Leicester going to win the title?’ I would have said, ‘ No, you are crazy!’ I did feel the team were good enough to do well but I didn’t think it was going to turn out this way. It’s going to be a carnival against Everton on Saturday now.”
Wayne Rooney paid tribute to Leicester by hailing them as worthy champions.
“They’ve been the best team in the league this season and they deserve it,” said the Manchester United and England skipper.
“It’s incredible where they are at the moment; Claudio Ranieri has done a fantastic job.”