Unexpected success creates unique problems. It poses questions where ambition and realism meet thereafter, about where fair expectations are calibrated now.
Leicester City confounded every prediction by winning the Premier League last season. Manager Claudio Ranieri has tried to set the same target again, of the 40 points required to avoid relegation, though his team procured 81 last season.
It was the ideal outcome, for supporters and team alike. Now, as they acknowledge, the context has changed. But, attempting to sum up the feelings of a fanbase, the author David Bevan said: “We want the best of both worlds. We don’t want people to expect too much. But if people write us off, fans will say: ‘We won the league by 10 points last season.’”
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That duality, he felt, was apparent last Sunday. "At the Community Shield, there was an element of really wanting to win it and an element of being happy to be there," he explained. Bevan chronicled every game of last season in his book The Unbelievables.
This season contains added fixtures, in the shape of the Champions League, which alter the equation. “You have this weird balance of saying: ‘I wouldn’t mind finishing 15th if we made the semi-finals of the Champions League,’” Bevan said. “But I would be happy with sixth or seventh.”
The BBC Sport broadcaster and Leicester fan John Bennett concurred.
“Pundits and journalists are writing Leicester off again this season but I’m still really positive,” he said. “Retaining the title will probably be out of reach now after the new managerial appointments at Chelsea, Man City and Man United but a top-six finish is more than possible.”
Neither anticipates a repeat of last season. Each believes the drop-off will be acceptable and that, having risen at remarkable pace, Leicester will not regress at the same speed. “Some people have been overreacting and saying: ‘They could get relegated,’” said Bevan. “But I think we have done pretty well to keep the squad together. We have only lost one player.”
That lone departure is midfielder N’Golo Kante – “without doubt the best player I have seen in a Leicester shirt in 26 years following the team,” according to Bennett – and the consensus is that City have bought well. “Ahmed Musa’s pace is frightening,” Bennett said, while Bevan argued: “Musa and Jamie Vardy look similar. Most teams would take two Vardys. It is exciting.”
Neither was despondent when outsiders tipped Leicester for relegation 12 months ago. Bevan felt they would come around 15th while Bennett recalled: “I was thinking finishing 10th would make for a great season.” He only started to believe they would win the title when Crystal Palace were beaten in March. For Bevan the pivotal moment was Riyad Mahrez’s goal at Manchester City in February.
It was a moment to generate belief in a year to produce a feeling anything is possible for a team of everymen who produced the extraordinary.
It is why, while supporters are not expecting too much, nor are they ruling out the chances of the remarkable happening. “If Vardy and Mahrez stay fit it could be another special season,” Bennett said. “The fairytale is not over yet.”
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