If Leicester win the title, it can’t outstrip their miracle season

Sir Alex Ferguson was never in any doubt about his most important title at Manchester United. The first one. it always is. Get a team, or a club, over the line and there is a chance they might do it again. They have the experience. They know the course and distance now. They understand the demands, the pressure.

What Pep Guardiola has achieved at Manchester City is magnificent, but the most important title of this modern era was won by roberto Mancini in 2012. it changed what Manchester City could be and how they were perceived.

Would Guardiola even be there now had City not shown themselves to be a club capable of winning the Premier League? it is unlikely.

So the debate around Brendan rodgers’ Leicester versus the title-winning team under Claudio ranieri is moot. There is no contest. No matter the points total, no matter how many goals Jamie Vardy (below) scores, no matter the relative cost of assembly.

Even if Leicester win the League this year it will not outstrip what was achieved in the 2015- 16 season. How could it when the Leicester now owes itself to the Leicester then? This isn’t about statistics. it is about a narrative.

Leicester’s performance this season is in large part due to the guidance of rodgers, but would a coach of his calibre have come to the lower mid- table Premier League club — or worse — which existed before ranieri’s miracle season?

Think of the players Leicester have attracted, think of those who have stayed. All made possible by the title-winning campaign. Keeping Vardy, buying Youri Tielemans, James Maddison or Ayoze Perez — none of it is possible without Leicester becoming a title-winning, Champions League club. The circumstances that season were exceptional, too, because leading a title race and chasing one — particularly as plucky underdogs and some distance behind — involve entirely different levels of pressure.

By now, in 2015-16, Leicester were leading the league. Between winning 3- 0 at Newcastle on November 21 and winning 1-0 at Tottenham on January 13, they were either in first place or second. After the 1-1 draw at Aston Villa on January 16 they went top and did not relinquish that position for the remainder of the season.

That does not compare to the psychological challenge of being eight points behind Liverpool, as Leicester are now. Certainly, once Leicester won 3-1 at Manchester City on February 6, 2016, it became their title to lose. That was the day ranieri began believing he was managing the champions, and finishing in the top four was no longer considered the height of Leicester’s ambition.

‘ Leicester City, we’re coming for you.’ remember that? Leicester lived with the pressure of the chasing pack for the majority of the season. Across 38 games, they were top for 24. it was an entirely different test to now — a handy second, but with few believing they can overtake Liverpool.

Might those circumstances change? Well, let’s dream a while. Leicester have kept six clean sheets this season, double that of Liverpool. The teams also meet on December 26 at the King Power Stadium.

Say Leicester win that one. Potentially, it narrows the gap to five points. is it unthinkable that a team with Leicester’s strong defensive record might chip away at Liverpool’s lead across other fixtures? No.

it is unthinkable Manchester City make up 14 points because that would require five victories on weekends when Liverpool lose and — even leaving aside the improbability of such a collapse — City do not look to have that consistency this season. Yet were Liverpool to falter in two or three games, Leicester could close the gap.

Still unlikely, yes,

but not impossible. And only then would they be in the position of the 2015-16 team enduring the strain felt by the front-runner, or even by a challenger breathing down the leader’s neck in a hard-fought race.

At the moment, Leicester are in a very positive position, enjoying the praise that comes with exceeding expectations, but also the stillness felt in the slipstream of a runaway leader.

Would Rodgers swap places with Jurgen Klopp? Of course he would. But that doesn’t mean there are not benefits to tucking in behind, particularly once the business end of the Champions League begins.

Liverpool will be playing twice a week, Leicester with seven days to prepare for most League games and no distractions, just what Ranieri’s team had in 2015-16.

So there are similarities, yes. Rodgers, like Ranieri, is doing a fabulous job.

Were Leicester to win the League this season, it would be an astonishing achievement, little short of a miracle.

But not the miracle — because they already performed that, four years ago.

RICHARD MASTERS will be the new chief executive of the Premier League, having held the position as an interim appointment for over a year. Like many leading businesses, the Premier League had employed headhunting agencies to identify suitable candidates. these experts came up with Susanna dinnage, who didn’t actually want the job, and david Pemsel, whose mind appeared to be elsewhere. Quite why organisations delegate to outsiders like this is a mystery. With all the knowledge and influence across 20 Premier League clubs, surely they could do the job themselves? if Masters was the right man all along, this was a serious amount of time and money wasted.