20 Premier League Previews in 20(ish) Days: Leicester City
Stadium: King Power Stadium (capacity: 32,262)
Manager: Claudio Ranieri (first season)
Nickname: The Foxes
2014-15 Record: 41 points (11-8-19), 14th place in the Premier League
In the last two seasons, there have been two teams that historic data and mathematics would probably tell you were doomed to relegation. In the 2013-14 season, Sunderland needed a series of incredibly unlikely results like away wins against Chelsea and Manchester United and earning a draw on the road against that year’s champions, Manchester City to avoid relegation.
Leicester were just that team in 2014-15. Despite winning the SkyBet Championship in dominant fashion with 102 points and 31 wins in 46 league matches, the Foxes were dead last in 20th place from late November until about early April. There were other low points like then-manager Nigel Pearson calling a reporter ‘an ostrich’, Pearson being sacked and un-sacked and, for good measure, grabbing Crystal Palace midfielder James MacArthur by the neck during a match.
Yet, Pearson should get as much credit as anyone for the remarkable April turnaround the club experienced to ensure Premier League survival. Unlike Sunderland, whose survival was guaranteed by results against top teams, Leicester were unbeatable against mid-tables sides like West Ham, Southampton and Swansea City. The end result was a remarkable seven wins in nine matches and the Foxes ensuring survival with a road 0-0 draw at Sunderland in their penultimate match.
After that incredible turnaround and surviving with some room to spare, why is there now a new manager in place?
We never will know the exact reasons for the Leicester City board sacking Pearson on June 30th other than a statement from the club saying: “It has become clear that fundamental differences in perspective exist between us”.
Besides being an established difficult person to deal with, Pearson’s son James was involved in an unsavoury sex tape where he and two other younger players were caught on racially abusing their Thai female companions. This is doubly bad because Leicester City is owned by Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and the video was taken while the club was on a goodwill tour of Thailand.
Pearson’s replacement, Claudio Ranieri, has about 30 years of managerial experience mainly in Europe’s top leagues including stops at: Napoli, Fiorentina, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Inter Milan, AS Monaco and most recently for Greece’s national team. Last time he was in England, Ranieri managed Chelsea from 2000-04 and in his final season guided the Blues to second place in the league — their highest finish in nearly 50 years.
New Arrivals: Christian Fuchs — left-back (Schalke 04), Robert Huth — centre-back (Stoke City), Shinji Okazaki — striker (Mainz 05).
The signing that will likely make the Foxes supporters happiest is the signing of German centre-back Robert Huth permanently. Huth joined the club on loan last season from Stoke City in February and was a critical part of their late season survival push.
Although the first new player signed this transfer window, Austrian international left-back Christian Fuchs, is hardly an under-the-radar signing himself. Last season Fuchs played Champions League football for Schalke 04, scoring three goals in four appearances and in total made 99 appearances for Die Knappen from 2010-14.
For good measure the club also signed the all-time active leading Japanese goal scorer and the man with the most goals by a Japanese player in Bundesliga history: Shinji Okazaki. That latter stat is not trivial as 11 players in the current Japanese national team play in the German top flight. Okazaki scored 29 goals in 70 total appearances in his last two seasons with Mainz.
It’s only three players, but they all seem like fairly safe bets. Huth and Fuchs are well-established players at this level and should strengthen a defence that was much improved by the end of last season. While this will be Okazaki’s first time playing in England, the physical nature of the Bundesliga should have prepared him well.
Familiar Faces: Leonardo Ulloa — striker (13 goals in 40 appearances), Wes Morgan — centre-back (two goals in 40 appearances), Jamie Vardy — striker (five goals in 36 appearances), Riyad Mahrez — winger (four goals in 32 appearances), Jeffrey Schlupp — left-back/winger (four goals in 35 appearances).
With one notable exception the club has done a good job keeping the core group from last year. However that notable exception is Argentine international defensive midfielder Esteban Cambiasso, the club player of the year as voted by the Foxes supporters. Cambiasso, who joined Leicester City after being released by Inter Milan in 2014, anchored the defence and even provided five goals going forward. A player of Cambiasso’s class and background seemed almost too good to be true and sadly it was when he turned down a new contract offer yesterday.
Going into last season the club did not radically alter the make-up of a team which had dominated the Championship en route to promotion. But they saw the need to add a quality striker. Leonardo Ulloa was worth a then-club record £8million to join from Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion. He contributed when it counted, including two goals in a 5-3 home win over Manchester United and a goal in the 2-0 home win over Swansea City that brought the Foxes off the bottom of the league. By the end of the season Ulloa was far and away the club top-scorer with 13 goals in all competitions.
Another intriguing forward is Jamie Vardy, who was Man of the Match in that home win against Manchester United and earned a call-up to the English national team on the strength of his play this past season. Considering Vardy was playing in the English sixth tier (The Conference North) for FC Halifax Town to start the 2011-12 season, this has been quite an eventful few years.
One more intriguing forward is Croatian international Andrej Kramarić who joined this past January from HNK Rijeka in his home country for a record £9million transfer fee. Kramarić was absurdly prolific (55 goals in 65 appearances) at Rijeka, though he only scored three goals in 15 appearances after joining the Foxes.
While other Leicester young players were embarrassing themselves abroad, Jeffrey Schlupp was voted the club’s Young Player of the Year by supporters and Player of the Year by his team-mates. The 22-year-old Ghanaian international went up through the team academy and made 31 Premier League appearances (35 total) in 2014-15.
Although three goalkeepers made starts last year, Kasper Schmeichel is clearly the first choice keeper when fit, ahead of even the ageless 42-year-old Mark Schwarzer, whom Leicester brought from Chelsea when Schmeichel was injured in early 2015.
The core of last year’s top defenders: Paul Konchesky, Richie De Laet and Wes Morgan also return.
Completely Unscientific/Somewhat Unbiased Predicted Finish: 19th place
Leicester are probably the toughest team to predict in the league. It is impossible to ignore the run they went on at the end of last season, or the addition of a proven high-level defender in Christian Fuchs. However, the departure of Esteban Cambiasso (who played no small part in the club’s amazing finish) is going to be felt the entire season.
There’s also the fact that this was an undeniably terrible team for a vast majority of the 2014-15 season that suddenly became unbeatable for the last two months. Leicester could easily revert to the poor form that marked much of last season.
While he has a good overall résumé, Ranieri will not be as familiar with this team and will still be feeling out what he’s got even when the season starts in three weeks. His predecessor Pearson may have had personal issues, but accomplished quite a lot in the last two seasons. Ranieri was a good appointment for a club of Leicester’s stature but he won’t have a full off-season with this team.
The last team to have a miraculous finish, Sunderland, had a hangover the entire following season and had to scratch and claw their way to a 16th place finish which barely ensured Premier League survival. It’ll be very hard for Leicester to survive for another year, but they have the potential to achieve great things.
