With the 2015/16 English Premier League season a matter of weeks away, Richard Jolly provides his thoughts on each of the 20 teams and predicts their final league finish. Here he looks at Leicester City.
After the great escape, the embarrassing mess. Leicester’s run of seven wins in their final seven games took them from 20th to 14th and prompted suggestions Nigel Pearson was a possible manager of the year. Instead, he departed rather ignominiously after his son was filmed in what has been termed “a racist orgy”. Enter, in a surprising appointment, Claudio Ranieri, who seems Pearson’s antithesis and an odd choice to manage a Leicester squad still largely populated by the players who won the Championship in 2014. For all his idiosyncrasies, Pearson got the most from them. Ranieri boasts a far more dazzling past but faces a challenge to adapt to his new charges. It took Pearson most of the season to find a winning formula and Leicester have lost their outstanding individual then, Esteban Cambiasso. Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, probably the best player left at the club, assumes an added importance while Jamie Vardy, Jeffrey Schlupp and Riyad Mahrez, who ended their first year in the Premier League in credit, have to prove they are not one-season wonders. Leicester’s owners surely imagine Ranieri is the man to take them to the next level. The danger is that he takes them back to the previous one.
Key Man: Robert Huth – An unglamorous choice but the giant German's January arrival from Stoke and Leicester's subsequent switch to a back three, proved the catalyst for their inspired surge to safety. Huth offered vital solidity.
Pivotal Signing: Shinji Okazaki – Part of Nigel Pearson's legacy, the £7 million (Dh39.9m) Japanese was signed by the former manager. Having scored 27 goals for Mainz in the last two Bundesliga seasons, he has shown his credentials in a major European league.
Crucial Factor: Team spirit. Leicester maintained their unity and belief during their 140-day stay at the foot of the Premier League, enabling them to mount their rescue bid. Ranieri has to ensure the spirit Pearson fostered is not lost.
Prediction: 20
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