Ranieri had demanded a display fitting for coronation
And the Foxes did not fail as they celebrated title in style
THE sweet smell of success was all over Claudio Ranieri.
The Leicester manager had been drenched with champagne moments earlier, with Christian Fuchs the culprit and Kasper Schmeichel a smiling accomplice.
Standing, soaking, in a corridor at the King Power stadium, Ranieri now attempted to make sense of one of sport’s greatest stories for a final time.
Dangling around his neck was his Premier League winners’ medal and it was as he inspected it that it became clear just what this remarkable, inspirational triumph truly represents.
“I will keep it in my home and when there is a bad moment I will take it out, look at it and say, ‘Heh, come on man – balance’,” said Ranieri.
Whatever else happens in this popular Italian’s career, whatever the Leicester’s players do, or do not, go on to achieve from here, they will always have this day. A joyous, riotous day when a city celebrated like no other and the eyes of the world fell on a club who at this stage last season had still to safeguard their topflight status.
There was something refreshing about hearing Ranieri reveal he would not be stuffing the medal at the back of a drawer, seldom to be seen, given how managerial protocol often dictates it is the next success that must immediately come into view.
Not that he is the sort to become intoxicated by the high, which saw thousands of fans lining the streets hours before kick-off wearing their ‘Hail Claudio, Emperor of the Champions’ T-shirts, or munching the specially commissioned ‘Salt and Victory’ flavour crisps made by Walkers.
Among them was a group of AS Roma supporters wearing black T-shirts with Ranieri’s face adorning the front. “We come for Claudio,” said one in between sips of the free bottles of Singha beer distributed by Leicester’s Thai owners.
There was a banner amid the masses thronging outside the stadium which read “A trophy earned not bought”, and in this money-flushed era of dominance from the elite, it was a powerful statement of how the collective had prevailed against the odds.
After the emotional prematch entertainment from Andrea Bocelli, who sang Nessun Dorma and then Con Te Partiro with Ranieri standing to his side, the message to Leicester’s players had been a simple one. It is one which will be repeated on the opening day of next season.
“I asked them, ‘Show me. Show me we are champions. All the people are waiting to see you play as champions’,” he said. “And they put in a very good performance. “I want the same next season. You can win or lose, but I want to see the same attitude, the same link between each other. “I want to enjoy this, but I want to keep all the players. It is important for us, it is important for them because they don’t know the Champions League. “If they go away, it is not good for them. It is much better if they stay and improve for another year here and then go where they want. But I have said so many times if one player comes to me and says, ‘I want to go’, then, OK, they can go.”
Jamie Vardy’s brace – he spurned a hat-trick with a penalty miss – and a goal from Andy King ensured the party went with a swing, although Everton’s feeble surrender marked them down as the antithesis of everything their rivals have stood for over nine months. Why any Leicester player would want out now is baffling.
Peter Schmeichel watched as his son and Fuchs gatecrashed Ranieri’s post-match press conference, pictured below, when the on-field celebrations on a carpet of ticker-tape had come to an end, and it was hard to imagine him having tried something similar with Sir Alex Ferguson.
“Team spirit?” a voice asked of Ranieri. “No respect,” he shot back with a smile as he tried to clean his glasses.
Yet it is very much part of Leicester’s success. The tight-knit, do-anything-for-you kind of attitude that Everton manager Roberto Martinez should be in envy of as the threat of being sacked before the final game of the season looms large.
Ranieri and Martinez are heading in different directions. Europe’s top table awaits for the former and for those who anticipate Leicester will be happy just to enjoy the ride there was a word of warning.
“I believe when the draw for the Champions League is made a lot of teams will want to play against us because we are in Europe for the first time and they think we are underdogs,” he said. There was a pause. “We are underdogs, but we are dangerous. Underdogs can be dangerous teams.”
And, gloriously – thanks to this Leicester side – of that there is no longer any doubt.
LEICESTER (4-4-2): Schmeichel 7; Simpson 7, Morgan 7, Wasilewski 7, Fuchs 7; Mahrez 8 (Gray 90), Kante 7, King 8, Albrighton 7 (Schlupp 67, 7); Okazaki 7 (Ulloa 62, 7), Vardy 9. Goals: Vardy 5, 65 pen, King 33. NEXT UP: Chelsea (a), Sun PL.
EVERTON (4-4-2): Robles 6; Oviedo 5, Stones 5, Pennington 7, Baines 5; Lennon 5, McCarthy 5, Barkley 5 (Osman 81), Cleverley 5 (Gibson 63, 5); Niasse 5 (Mirallas 63, 6), Lukaku 5.
Booked: Pennington, Cleverley. Goal: Mirallas 88.
NEXT UP: Sunderland (a), Wed PL. Referee: A Marriner (West Midlands).