English soccer’s superpowers shown up by little Leicester

MANCHESTER, England — One by one, English soccer’s supposed superpowers fell off the relentless pace set by Leicester in the Premier League title race.

Liverpool and defending champion Chelsea were out of it by Christmas, by which time they’d fired their managers. A sorry set of results during December and January did for Manchester United’s realistic title ambitions. Manchester City, attempting to win trophies on four fronts, had imploded by the end of March, while Arsenal’s familiar early-spring collapse ruined its chance of a first league trophy since 2004.

Tottenham, itself a surprise challenger, offered the last hope of taking the title race to the wire, but bowed to the pressure of must-win games in the run-in.

It left Leicester — little Leicester — to celebrate one of the most unlikely successes ever in sports. And it left officials, players and staff of the Premier League’s heavyweight clubs embarrassed and perplexed.

“We all feel guilty,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, speaking for the league’s traditional elite, “and we are all looked at like it’s a shame we are not winning the league because Leicester are at the top.”

How could they let this happen?

A number of reasons contributed to the failure of England’s giants to keep up with Leicester: complacency, arrogance, laziness in the transfer market, European commitments, the financial boom in English soccer, and plain old bad luck. They combined to allow an imposter to shake up the established order like never before.

And still they might not have learnt their lesson. Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini has suggested Leicester’s rise was nothing more than a blip.

“I don’t think it’s a lesson,” Pellegrini said in Spanish newspaper El Mundo. “(Leicester) is a very well-organized team, with very few injuries. They have great merit, but I do not think they will remain at the top for eight or 10 years. All big teams have money at their core.”

But it’s that kind of dismissive attitude that may have cost financial powers like City this season.

City splashed out close to $200 million on big names such as Raheem Sterling, Kevin de Bruyne and Nicolas Otamendi in the offseason. Chelsea’s most high-profile summer recruit was Radamel Falcao, once among the world’s great strikers but an injury-prone flop at United last season. United, meanwhile, took its spending in two years under Louis van Gaal to about $375 million by bringing in the likes of Memphis Depay, Anthony Martial and Morgan Schneiderlin.

And look where those mostly obvious signings got them. Leicester has shown that astuteness, rather than the size of a club’s budget, can be the most important attribute in the transfer market. N’Golo Kante, Christian Fuchs and Shinji Okazaki were Leicester’s three top signings last offseason and were stars of Leicester’s title-winning campaign. They likely wouldn’t have been deemed big enough names for the likes of City and United.

“For a club like Leicester City, it is much more easy to buy players,” Van Gaal said last week, by way of an attempted explanation. “Also, the pressure of the transfer of players is less big and also the pressure on the players to perform is less big. It is a big difference.”

The big-club arrogance shows in other ways, too. City and Arsenal mostly refuse to bend their tactics in games according to who they are playing. Among City’s thrashings this season was a 3-1 loss at home to Leicester in February — it was as if they were unaware of Leicester’s brilliance on the counterattack.

Complacency struck Chelsea after its runaway title success last season. The side was a shadow of the 2014-15 lineup, with Leicester’s team spirit putting Chelsea’s players to shame.

The big clubs might also have taken their eye off the league because of Champions League and Europa League commitments. Like Leicester this season, Liverpool was Europe-free in the 2013-14 season and nearly won the league that year. Returning three days after a European fixture to play a domestic match is not easy any more, not in a division as competitive as the Premier League.

The league’s new domestic and international TV deals, starting from next season, are worth $12 billion for three years and are split fairly equitably between the 20 top-flight clubs. Middle and lower-ranking clubs (as Leicester used to be) have more cash to build a competitive squad and resist the overtures of the big teams, as Everton did with John Stones and Southampton did with Sadio Mane last offseason.

Leicester has been lucky with injuries, allowing manager Claudio Ranieri to enjoy consistency of selection in the team’s one game a week. At times, the injury lists of Liverpool, City, United and Arsenal have been horrendous as they juggle three or four competitions, and Leicester can expect more injury issues next season when they are involved in the Champions League.

But that is for next season. For now, Leicester can simply sit back and savor humiliating the biggest teams in England.