‘Less than a year ago, our fans were sad and crying... now they’re happy’
LEICESTER City boss Enzo Maresca has described guiding the club back to the Premier League at the first attempt as “the best feeling”, writes Josh Holland.
City suffered a 2-0 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers on the final day of the season, but it was still a day of celebrations at the King Power Stadium.
The result meant Blackburn avoided relegation to League One, with both teams celebrating at full-time.
Leicester lifted the Championship trophy with Jamie Vardy, Marc Albrighton and Ricardo Pereira doing the honours in front of a packed stadium.
After joining his players and staff to celebrate their success, Maresca spoke about his delight at winning the league in his first full season in management.
He also referred back to last term’s relegation from the top flight and the change of emotions within the fanbase.
Asked about finally getting the job done, Maresca said: “The best feeling. Less than one year ago, the same people were sad, some of them were crying.
“Today we made them happy and this is the reason I work every day and wake up every day – to see people enjoy days like today.
“Fantastic feeling. I said before the game to the players, yes the game is important, but enjoy the moment because in our lives as a footballer and manager, most of the time you’re not going to win and when you do win, you have to enjoy it. Enjoy today with family and friends.”
Maresca also insisted that losing the game didn’t taken the gloss off the title celebrations, pointing to the surprising fact that all four teams at risk of the drop won their respective games.
“If you see Birmingham, they won; Plymouth, they won; Sheffield Wednesday, they won; Blackburn, they won,” he said.
“When you play to survive and the other team doesn’t play… it happens. But I think we competed.
“The best way to respect the opposition is to compete. We tried to do something new to see for the future.
“The good thing about this team is that we played 53 games and we competed in all the games. This is good.
“Sometimes you can lose, sometimes you win, but the important thing is to compete.”