The shrewd recruitment that has carried the Foxes to the title makes a mockery of breaking the bank, says the Mirror sports writer
They have spent the last six months enjoying the avalanche of praise being heaped on them.
Particularly for their spending. Just £400,000 on Riyad Mahrez. Only £5.6m on N’golo Kante.
Marc Albrighton on a free from Aston Villa and – of course – that £1m spent on Jamie Vardy.
The shrewd acquisitions that have helped Leicester into legend have been held up as a model for rival Premier League clubs to follow.
It is true that in some cases, the Foxes have been used – perhaps unfairly – as a stick to beat other clubs with.
Overall, however, they have rightly been held up as an example to others that you can build a winning team without breaking the bank.
Yet in the post-mortems being held over the failures of the established elite – Chelsea, Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs – there is one common denominator.
The praise for Leicester’s intelligent, shrewd recruitment is counter-balanced by a belief that the heavyweights all need to break the bank to catch them.
So was the Foxes’ recruitment model the one to follow or not?
Do the heavyweights really need to spend more cash than a Wall Street rogue banker this summer?
Yes, Leicester could win the title by 10 points this weekend (assuming both they and Spurs win their respective matches).
They go into the final game 17 points clear of United and 15 points clear of City – a damning indictment of both clubs’ season.
Yet it could be argued that Sir Alex Ferguson lifted his last title three years ago with a squad inferior to those at both United and City now.
It could be also argued that the problem at both clubs is only partly down to the players and mostly down to the managers.
Louis van Gaal has been too defensive-minded, sucking the creativity and the joy out of a club that has thrilled us over the last two decades.
(Witness the renaissance of Angel Di Maria once he escaped to Paris St Germain.)
Pellegrini’s team this season often reflected his laconic character. Lacking in dynamism and bite.
The talent has been undoubtedly there but the steel has been missing, particularly away from home where they managed to win less than half of their 18 games.
Despite the fact that United have spent more than £320m since Fergie retired, Van Gaal last week claimed that “expectations are too high”.
Really?
Last summer, City’s spending shattered the £100m mark, finishing up closer to around £140m.
Young striker Kelechi Iheanacho has come good to support Sergio Aguero and, in doing so, save the club a few quid this summer.
Raheem Sterling will surely be better next season than he was this and, overall, wouldn’t it be to Pep Guardiola’s credit if he were to succeed having tweaked the squad rather than made wholesale changes?
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They may have been thumped in the FA Cup but their brief appearance gave us the chance to see that the likes of defender Tosin Adarabioyo, Manu Garcia and David Faupala are fine prospects.
Of course, Guardiola will want some of his own players but wouldn’t it be refreshing to see him pull some rabbits out of the hat this summer?
Chelsea have a squad full of teenagers champing at the bit after winning the FA Youth Cup and the Uefa Youth League. Yet they also intend to splash the cash this summer.
The likes of £40m Romelu Lukaku, defender John Stones (who would cost the same amount) and £31m Roma midfielder Radja Nainggolan are all in their sights.
Inexplicably, Chelsea’s victorious youngsters haven’t even been given a chance in their first team to stake a claim for next season, despite the seniors not having anything to play for for weeks.
It doesn’t bode well for next season under Antonio Conte whose brief will be to reclaim the title. Yet it should.
Ironically, Leicester are very interested in the Blues’ right-back Ola Aina – a very talented defender – who is refusing to sign a new contract at Stamford Bridge because of his lack of chances.
Nineteen-year-old winger Demarai Gray, snapped up in January for just £3.75m has had time to get his feet under the table and should show his value next season with a pre-season under his belt.
So too the former FC Copenhagen midfielder Daniel Amartey, highly-rated in Denmark. If the Ghanaian is to be Kante’s successor next term he will have had a pretty decent handover during the last six months. Ranieri thinks the world of him.
And the Italian won’t have to mortgage the King Power Stadium to land Pescara striker Gianluca Lapadula either. The 26-year-old has scored 24 times for his Serie B side this season.
There are bargains to be had out there. Dimitri Payet cost West Ham just £10.75m this season. At £11.25m, Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld has been three times better than City’s Nicolas Otamendi at a third of the price.
Had £5m Dele Alli signed for certain clubs in the Premier League then he’d be out on loan right now instead of the PFA Young Player of the Year.
He wouldn’t have been an ambitious enough capture by the clubs whose complacency has cost them this season.
What a shame they appear not to have learned their lessons and are in pursuit of Leicester with their wallets instead of their heads.
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