It has been three weeks since Leicester City Football Club won the Barclays Premier League after overcoming 5000:1 odds at the start of the season. After the fairy-tale season that Leicester had, they must prepare for 2016/2017 season. Although Leicester was second guessed at every single point of the season up until they clinched the title after the 2-2 draw between Tottenham and Chelsea. As the defending champion, Leicester City will get the benefit of confidence and pride, and they must use this momentum to help them in the upcoming campaign.
With many popular clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern expected to bid for Leicester City Stars such as Riyad Maherz, Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel, Daniel Drinkwater and N’Golo Kante. With the entire midfield core and their star goalkeeper being linked to other clubs, Leicester must work towards keeping their core intact to mount a decent title challenge.
Leicester must also work on spending some of the 90 million pounds earned by winning in the transfer market. With Leicester qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, they will have additional games with the possibility that they will have to travel extensively on Tuesday or Wednesday and be back for BPL games on Saturday or Sunday. With BPL, UCL, the FA Cup, and the English League Cup, Leicester will have to ensure that they have quality depth to put a well balanced team each game. With the overnight fame that Leicester has earned, many players would be open to a move to Leicester this summer. By purchasing two to three players for the team, Leicester will be able to get better with depth.
Claudio Ranieri, Leicester’s manager, must also understand that the Premier League will become the toughest competition to be in. Chelsea will be hiring Antonio Conte after an epic title defense collapse, Manchester City replacing Manuel Pellegrini with Pep Guardiola, and Manchester United hiring Jose Mourinho. Tottenham will continue to develop their team under Mauricio Pochettino, Liverpool will continue under Klopp, while Arsenal will continue under Arsene Wenger. With seven teams led by world class managers, the 2016/2017 league campaign could be the most competitive and interesting in BPL history. This means that Leicester must develop their team to compete with the squads that the other teams will play, understanding that teams will be spending millions of pounds for the season .
The Leicester City Football Club 2015-2016 campaign will do down as one of the biggest underdog campaigns in sports history, but the way the BPL is structured, Leicester will need to adapt and evolve their team so that they can defend their title and make sure they are adequately prepared to be successful in upcoming years.
