Leicester go into this game as Premier League champions, making them the 24th team to win the English top-flight title.
Advertisement
Defeat for City would leave them vulnerable to fifth-placed Manchester United, who travel to relegation-threatened Norwich City on Saturday four points behind their local rivals with a game in hand at West Ham United next week. I don’t think it has been an accident.
At Thursday’s press conference he was given a standing ovation by journalists, a reception in stark contrast to the widespread ambivalence that greeted his appointment as Leicester manager last summer.
Leicester beat Everton 3-2 at Goodison Park in December in the reverse fixture.
“Our home form hasn’t been good enough”.
As the wonderful triumph of Leicester City still begins to sink in, one goes back to the start of the season, when asked what his primary aim was, Ranieri said it was reaching 40 points and survival. We all linked very well together.
Everton duo Gareth Barry and Seamus Coleman had a small chance of featuring against the Foxes, while winger Gerard Deulofeu was likely to miss the remainder of the campaign through injury, Martinez confirmed.
The decision to sign the 62 year-old Leicester City coach comes just days after Tag Heuer agreed a sponsorship deal with the Premier League ahead of its clean rebrand next season. “Never did I think too much about where it would take us”.
“All the players, all the clubs, all the managers work hard”. Everyone does, but only one can win. “I have three years”, he said. “I certainly have great esteem for Ranieri for what he has achieved”. “And I want to say thanks to them all”. To the fans. They were dreaming.
Leicester are hardly paupers but their spending on players and wages was dwarfed by the teams they were competing against for the title, with their star players all cut-price buys. “I am the Thinkerman, not Tinkerman!”
The last five matches between these two sides on Leicester’s home ground have all been draws.
That will continue next season when they make their debut in the lucrative Champions League, and the tycoon feels it is only right the players receive their share of the pie.
Chelsea’s Belgium forward Eden Hazard said he had recovered his passion for the game after scoring a stunning equaliser to end Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League title hopes on Monday.
The Foxes have completed their remarkable Premier League title success with two games to spare, and thoughts are already beginning to turn towards next season.
But the champions will stick to their current strip on Saturday, wearing it for the last time as they host Everton at the King Power Stadium before they are presented with their historic crown.
All that is in addition to a £6.5m pot split between the squad under the terms of the club’s bonus agreement with the Premier League.
Advertisement
Leicester City is poised to land a 50 million pound (US$73.5-million) earnings boost after overturning odds of 5000-1 to become the Premier League soccer champion, one of the biggest shocks in sports history.
