Leicester City has been the talk of the town ever since they did the impossible, winning a Premier League title despite 5000-to-1 odds. There are a number of books on this topic floating around out there, but
Leicester City: The Immortals: The Inside Story of England’s Most Unlikely Champions from Harry Harris is in a league of its own.
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable text, one that details a month-by-month journey into Leicester’s title season. It flows nicely from moment to moment and point to point thanks to solid organization and bite-size pieces of information. It’s rather lovely in that regard.
The book discusses the significance of the Foxes’ accomplishment, tackling whether or not it is the greatest feat in football history. Comparisons are drawn with Brian Clough’s work with Nottingham Forest, particularly the 1977-78 season. Harris does a great job explaining how amazing this title run really was and he proves to everyone that he was the perfect choice to write this book.
The Foxes of 2015-16 were an unlikely bunch, a team with a payroll that was the lowest of any club in the top half of the Premier League. This was a team that was bought by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha for 39 million pounds. 77 million pounds in transfers later, Leicester was a team that was poised to do the impossible. This is a club that has had plenty of time to achieve, considering that it was founded in 1884.
They are a team that brought the EPL to every household, a Cinderella story that caught the attention of people in every country in every corner of the world. Simply put, they educated the world, creating a fervor that has never been seen before. The Foxes appeared in unlikely places like The Wall Street Journal or in the NFL as they made connections with the Carolina Panthers. It’s a team that grew into a global brand literally overnight.
This text has a modern vibe thanks to the inclusion of tweets and detailed accounts (recaps, stats, standings) from their season. The social component is something that should be in more books, but it is sadly not. Social media did play a major part in telling the Leicester story. There were, after all, 493,000 LCFC-related tweets in the first five minutes after the result that handed them the title, an incredible 140,000 tweets in the first minute after the final whistle.
What’s the next step for Leicester City? Winning a Champions League title? Anything is possible for the Foxes now that the Foxes have beaten such incredible odds. What’s the next stop for you? Hopefully picking up this great title from Skyhorse Publishing.
