World loves an underdog yet till the underdog is sure of winning not many take cognizance. This is true for many of us football lovers who
followed the English Premier league this year.
Leicester City or the Foxes are the
champions- New and more importantly first time. Their best result I am told was to be ranked 2 in 1929. What happened
yesterday is a story that happens once is many many years but am sure will be
spoken about for many more decades to come. After all 87 years is a long wait
to move from best of no 2 to be the champions finally! Before the Harvard's or the Insead's get into trying to know what happened and more importantly how it
happened and write case studies I want to share with you a few things that as per
me clearly stand out.
- Focus on task at hand – Last year fearing relegation Raneri focused on the task of saving the club from relegation as he took over. He just worked to ensure the club won 7 of its last 9 matches and lived to play in the league this season. Clear lets ‘save the day first’ attitude achieved by going about focusing what to do immediately.
- Build the Dream step by step – I confess I don’t know if, when the season started Raneri had the vision of winning the league but I hope like all coaches he did have it as a dream. If what I have read can be believed (I am quite trusting of the press here) Raneri first focused on beating the relegation this year. Once that was achieved and during the journey club had defeated some big names did the team actually started to believe they could be in the top 5. When they realized there was a wave they went about riding it as nonchalantly as possible by doing all the right things. A journey of small steps to achieve the dream
- Execute day in and day out – Excellence is not a flash in the pan. It is doing the things right every time. The team did just that. They came out, played like a unit, were brilliant at the basics and whenever a crack appeared whether in their defense or attack it was quietly filled and everyone focused on the job at hand.
- Team is bigger than an individual – We have seen it so many times (India world cup win 1983) that a group of passionate, determined individuals come together and create history. Same happened here. No big signings, no big names, no big egos and no big dramas just one common purpose and it seemed they had lot of fun playing together.
- Don’t listen to the Naysayers – When Raneri was sacked from Chelsea in 2004 club owner Abramovich claimed to have seen in the future by predicting that Raneri would never win a title in his lifetime. When a lot was written about the great coaches Raneri was talked about a man who was in the game for many decades but had a bare trophy cabinet with nothing to show for. Yet the same man has come from behind to win it all in form of one of the biggest prize game has.
This is the romance of the sport and this victory is magical.
Many of us followed the club week on week from it’s a flash in the pan, to
disbelief, to it can happen, to its happening and finally to Yeah it has
happened set of emotions. A lot will change for Leicester city in next 12
months starting from I don’t think they will be champions next year and will
also not be fighting relegation anytime in near future. Their key players like
Vardy will be bought by the big boys I mean clubs with deep pockets. Raneri
will in a few years be back at another top club / national team. But that is
for tomorrow.
Today is all about celebrating, romancing the dream, applauding
the victors, believing that fairy tales happen and wishing the team all the very
best as they take their rightful place in the Champions League.
Raneri and Boys take a Bow, for you have reinforced in
people like me the belief that miracles happen and dreams do come true however impossible
they may seem in the beginning. Thank you for that.
