WOW WHAT A DECADE!

JACQUES LE-BON TAKES A LOOK BACK AT SOME OF THE KEY MOMENTS AND STORIES OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS...

WITH the new decade now upon us, this is a wonderful time to reflect on the magic us football fans have been blessed to witness over the last ten years and think about what could happen in the infant decade ahead of us.

Shock Triumph

In 2016, Leicester shocked the foot balling planet as they lifted the coveted Premier League trophy. To make it all the more baffling, just two seasons before they’d been travelling to the likes of Doncaster and Yeovil playing Championship football.

Even more astonishing was that the season before they tasted Premier League glory, they were still sat rock bottom in the top division at game week 32.

It is truly incomprehensible as to how a team of such little footballing stature, compared to the goliaths of the division, could stun them all into silence.

A key component of their success was journeyman boss Claudio Ranieri. Coming into Leicester, the Italian had a wealth of experience (with the reputable clubs of Chelsea, Juventus and Inter Milan, amongst others, already on his CV). Therefore, you’d expect a competent team? Well, Ranieri definitely implemented this, immediately building a very strong defence focused around old fashioned style centre-backs: Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, defensive full-backs and an intercepting machine in (arguably the key player of the squad) N’Golo Kanté.

However, a solid defence can only take you so far. All title-winning sides need to be lethal in attack. Thankfully, Leicester had this in abundance with Ranieri’s adopted 4-4-2 formation being able to counter-attack with great pace and create quality chances (notably from Riyad Mahrez) leading to expert finishing from potent striker Jamie Vardy.

Undeniably, this Leicester side was lucky that all of the regular title challengers appeared to be in somewhat of a transitional phase during the 2015/16 season.