The Foxes' Unlikely Title Charge

This is not your typical underdog story. Leicester City is four wins away from clinching the most unlikely title win in English football in the past few decades and in the Premier League era certainly. With all of the rumblings around football's top body and with the current FIFA chief Gianni Infantino being one of the latest inductees into the Panama hall of fame, Leicester's ascent to the top of the English football pyramid is almost a neutral football fan's hope of flipping the bird at the system.

The English press is known to be quite a monster. Yet, month after month in this Premier League season, the narrative slowly changed from incredulity, to singing along the tune that an inevitable slide would befall the Foxes, to appreciating what they brought to the table, and now, to full-on fandom.

As English football is more than a century old, it makes sense to make comparisons in the Premier League era. It is in 1992 that English football had its Manmohan-Singh-Liberalisation moment, and the cash floodgates opened with the Premier League's birth. Manchester United was crowned the first champions and since, the title has not found its way around much of England with Manchester and London being its most frequent haunts. Blackburn Rovers won it in the 1994-95 season but it's mostly been the 'elite' of the division, namely United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea, who have given everyone else the runaround for some time now.

This is where Leicester's story makes you want to watch cute-cat gifs on the internet and feel mush. Stuff the underdog story, the way Leicester have been going about their business is actually the stuff of champions. It has been known to be a famed hallmark of title-winning sides that they 'grind' out victories when it's not going quite right for them. Sample this: Leicester's last four wins have all been 1-0 affairs, which tells you that they believe they are heading there.

For all the money that City, United and Chelsea threw around in the transfer window, the story of the champions this season could be that of a crew of cast-offs, write-offs and some late bloomers thrown in. Let's take it from the top. Called 'tinkerman' for his propensity to change the team around by the English press in his last stint as manager of a recently cash-flush Chelsea, Claudio Ranieri is having an Indian summer after missing out on titles in Italy with Roma, and in France with Monaco. When he was appointed as manager at the start of the season, BBC's Gary Linekar, once England's leading goal scorer and a Leicester fan, tweeted: "Claudio Ranieri? Really?"

The Englishman was just one cog of the press that derided a man who hadn't won a title with six different clubs and so was an uninspiring choice. He hadn't been able to make much of Abramovich's billions and was a serial failure. What may transpire though is that Linekar may be forced to host the BBC's iconic Match Of the Day program in underpants due to a running bet

And speaking of bets, there would have been few who would have bet on the likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N'Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater and Wes Morgan to be leading a title charge for a team that were in the relegation places this time last year.

Signed from non-league Fleetwood Town four years ago for a paltry 1 million pounds, 29-year-old Vardy has recently been called a "fantastic horse" by his manager. With nineteen goals so far in the league this season Vardy has been more of an outrageously combative and clinical pest who never gives up. It almost sets the tone for the rest of the team behind him and none of them are even close to shirkers. Twelve of his goals came in consecutive games in a record for the Premier League and Adrian Butchart, the maker of the famous Goal! Series of films is already planning a film on his life.

Vardy has not been at it alone though. Supplying enough ammunition and terrorizing defences is the Algerian Mahrez. Signed for 400,000 pounds from French side Le Havre over a year ago, the twinkle-toed wonder has 16 goals and 11 assists in this season, mostly courtesy that wand of a left foot. He is also the focal point of a talented national side making waves and has lit up the league with his fancy feet. Not blessed with those however, is the mid-field duo of Drinkwater and Kante.

Drinkwater is a curious story. A Manchester United graduate, he is known to be Scholes—like in demeanor but what he lacks in terms of skill and finesse, he more than makes up for with old-fashioned graft. His partner in crime, the diminutive Kante is a battery-powered ball seeker, breaking up attacks everywhere and launching headlong on the break during a counter-attack, embodying the spring-like football approach that the side have taken this season. Kante was reportedly on the market at the start of the season but no one was willing to take a punt on him.

Kante says that his hero is fellow Frenchman Lassana Diarra however but it is just that thrust that the Frenchman provides from the center of the park. Behind him is the centre-back pairing of Robert Huth and Wes Morgan. Huth is a former Chelsea player and was playing the role of a Stoke-City-reject at the start of the season. The latter, ridiculed enough for his weight is now the rock at the back. An opposition player recently remarked that the duo encourages crosses into the box, so confident they are of dealing with the danger.

There are impending perils, however. If you assume that Tottenham don't drop points until the end of the season (they will) the Foxes still have to play a buoyant West Ham, a boring Manchester United and an unpredictable Chelsea side still trying to make the mystical Alexandre Pato function.

When the dust settles however, this will still be a story worth telling and a quirk in the football timeline that has come about due to a proper football-fable: One of skill, grit, discipline and the unending will to graft.

Disclaimer: The writer of this piece is a 'thoroughbred' Manchester United fan. He regrets this endless gloating about a blue-shirted side.