Leicester City have sealed a miracle title win ‑ now let’s see what happens next

Congratulations, Leicester City on achieving an improbable, highly unlikely even far-fetched coup of clinching the English Premier League title. The unsung, unheralded club from the East Midlands have somehow sneaked away with the honour while the moneyed monoliths of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal  and Manchester City have had to miss out. Leicester should enjoy the moment, bask in their triumph and take it all in. Because the hard work starts now. The most unexpected of successes is probably even more astounding than when Blackburn Rovers saw off all the supposed ‘big boys’ to grab the Premiership title way back in 1995. It seems such a long time ago, but little ol’ Leicester could learn a lot from what happened when Kenny Dalglish’s team claimed English football’s greatest prize, despite a final day defeat at Liverpool. Or rather Leicester can look at the aftermath. It was such a shock to the system in 95 that Rovers were already on the slippery slope to being also-rans almost as soon as the victory lap of honour had been taken around Anfield. We just were not used to success. For the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United, this sort of thing happened all the time. As soon as such clubs won one trophy, they picked themselves up ready to do the same thing again. Success begets success it would seem. But Rovers somehow lost their way by not planning ahead, still wrapped up in the dizzying euphoria of what such a small-town club had achieved as the 1995-96 season kicked off. Don’t get me wrong ‑ the summer of 1995 to be walking round Blackburn on a sunny day had the same sort of feelgood vibe as it must have been to stroll through the streets of San Francisco in the hazy, crazy summer of love in 1967.’Cept in Blackburn at that time you did not need drugs — you just got high on the fact that we were league champions. So we got ready to do it all again  — or so we thought. But this time everybody was waiting for us. Every club wanted to beat the top dogs – us. In little over a week into the season two away defeats at Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton Wanderers came as a shuddering jolt to the champions. When arch-rivals of the time Manchester United (told you it was ages ago) walked away from Ewood Park with all three points in the next game, it was three defeats out of four and the title had been virtually surrendered. I don’t wanna be a party-pooper amid Leicester’s fun-filled jamboree but they should beware of what is around the corner. They should be planning ahead, making signings while they are at the top of the tree. Rovers had the chance to do likewise in 95 but missed the boat. As one piece in The Sun newspaper said at the time, Rovers made noises about signing Zinedane Zidane and Christophe Dugarry but settled for Matty Holmes and Graham Fenton. Dalglish had moved upstairs to become Director of Football and with Ray Harford in the managerial hot seat, it seemed to be a case of “If it aint broke don’t fix it”. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It could all have been so different, even if in the end 1995-96 was a decent season with some real highlights including a 7-0 home and 5-1 away double over Nottingham Forest. And the god-like figure of Alan Shearer ended up with five hat-tricks before he upped sticks for his hometown club Newcastle United. So as Leicester City’s party moves into full swing, the fans will be in dreamland. And so they deserve to be. But just don’t dream for too long. For now, the rest of the footballing world will be looking on agog at the Foxes’ stunning achievement. It has imparted some much-needed romance into a pecking order which, for all the hype and television mega-cash, had become so predictable and elitist. Leicester somehow gatecrashed the cosy status quo. Again, well done. What happens next will be just as fascinating.