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Leicester 2.0. How will the Foxes 2015-16 epitaph read?

Leicester City face off against Huddersfield Town. (Nigel French/PA via PA)
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28th April, 2016
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You should know the story by now, and the screenplay is almost finalised. But how are we going to wrap up this movie?

Let’s set the scene, shall we? We’re about two months out from the 2014-15 season’s end Leicester are in the bottom three and relegation seems imminent.

However they manage to turn it around and storm up the table to finish 14th and six points clear, much to the credit of manager Nigel Pearson. Pearson receives April’s ‘Manager of the Month’ award, but it’s not enough.

Pearson is sacked and Claudio Ranieri is brought in. The bookies have city at 5000-to-1 odds but they perform consistently throughout the season, and not consistent as in ‘consistently mediocre’, I mean they consistently get results.

Through the middle of the season Jamie Vary breaks Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record for most consecutive Premier League games with a goal.

There are a few scares along the way, losing at Arsenal in injury time, Jamie Vardy getting a red card and almost dropping all three points at home to West Ham. But with just three games left they are seven points clear on top of the table, meaning that one more win, or one more loss from challengers Tottenham means they will be the 2015-16 English Premier League Champions.

Great story so far – not the Mighty Ducks, the Flying Foxes! But what is next? We know how the movie should end, but one thing all great ‘based on a true story’ movies have is that rolling text at the end letting you know what happens after the movie?

So how will Leicester’s text read?

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I’m sure several Leicester fans are hoping for something like this.

2015-16 was the start of an era of dominance in the English Premier League for Leicester. Picking up two more titles in the following five years. Jamie Vardy became one of England’s most prolific strikers before departing the club for Spain saying ‘I would never play for another English team as long as I live, if Leicester want me to work the ticket box, or the canteen when I retire, I’d take that offer in a heartbeat’.

Sadly, in my opinion I think the most likely outcome is something like this.

After the 2015-16 season the Leicester City board saw the big money offers for their star players as a chance to secure the club financially and solidify their place in the Premier League for future seasons. Vardy went on to play for Manchester United and Riyad Mahrez went for big money to Spanish giants Real Madrid. However with excess funding but no interest from other marquee players, Leicester city signed older, more experienced, however less ambitious players. They finished 10th in 2016-17 the Premier League and did not move beyond the group stages in the Champions League.

This is what I’d love to see. I would also like to see the same written about Crystal Palace in the 2016/17 Premier League.

Despite big money offers from several clubs, the chance to play Champions League football galvanises Ranieri’s squad. While they’re Premier League performances suffered, Ranieri and Leicester had their eyes on only one prize. The team go on challenge for the Champions League title, defeating the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain along the way.

That one would probably be worth a sequel, nowhere near as good as the original but with enough celebrity cameos to keep you interested. Maybe a few go-pro action shots walking out onto the Santiago Bernabeu.

You’d obviously need to make up some sort of off-field drama to spice it up a bit, but I’d still pay to see it.

But who knows, the final scenes haven’t been written yet, and there’s a lot that Leicester haven’t accomplished that will keep the club hungry. Maybe the title of the movie should be ‘The Sky is the Limit’.

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Scratch that, ‘Sky Blue’.

What do you think the closing text of the Leicester movie would be? Comment with some suggestions.

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