Analysis: KELVIN ESIASA
THE football fraternity in England is still in disbelief that Leicester City Football Club (LCFC) has been crowned as EPL champion. People have failed to find reasons as to why LCFC are the football champions of England. Some soccer lovers are now pointing to Buddhist monks as the reason behind the Leicester magic.
However, there are many people that are celebrating Leicester achievement. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “It’s a fairy tale. It’s one of these beautiful stories that only football can write and that no one would have believed possible at the beginning of the season. It’s a story that has made not just Leicester fans very happy but all football fans. This is the magic of football.”
While Jose Mourinho said: “I want to congratulate everyone connected to LCFC: players, staff, owners and fans. I lost my title to Claudio Ranieri and it is with incredible emotion that I live this magic moment in his career.”
Therefore, what lessons can we pick from Leicester achievements. The first lesson we can learn from Leicester is that innovative management is key in craving for and achieving success.
An organisation can only achieve success if the people running it are innovative and believe in innovations.
Claudio Ranieri was quoted as saying: “When I arrived in August I started to look at the videos of all the games from the previous season. When I spoke with the players I realised that they were afraid of the Italian tactics.
“They did not look convinced, and neither was I. I have great admiration for those who build new tactical systems, but I always thought the most important thing a good coach must do is to build the team around the characteristics of his players. So I told the players that I trusted them and would speak very little of tactics.”
Secondly, team spirit has been imperative in Leicester’s success. The players did not talk about themselves.
They spoke as a team there victory was a collective effort. Mansfield Town boss Adam Murray hailed Leicester City’s stunning title success as a shining example of what teams could achieve with the right team spirit.
The third lesson to learn is the attitude of rejecting the rejection. This culminates in the philosophy of ‘failure is not fatal’.
They were a team of cast-offs and bargain buys written off before the season had started, led by a manager who had been sacked in five of his previous jobs.
The team consists of players who were previously deemed not good enough for the Premier League. Riyad Mahrez alludes to Leicester’s togetherness, potentially born out of rejection, as “the revenge of the barefooted men. I like that image,” the 25-year-old told French newspaper L’Equipe. “We were not programmed to become professional footballers.” Throughout his life he has grown to overcome his size, the winger had to overcome concerns about his size. But he has gone on to become the first African to be named PFA Player of the Year, with 17 goals and 11 assists.
Jamie Vardy, after being arrested for assault and fined by the club, has gone to become a football hero. In November 2015 he became the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League matches and consequently being voted Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.
Claudio Ranieri has become a cult hero at Leicester with his man-management, giving players pizza, as he led the team to the most unexpected league title in history. Ranieri’s previous jobs ended in being sacked.
He was sacked five times before joining Leicester city football club.
As the Zambian saying goes do not write off a man while he is still alive, Leicester magic is an example.
The author is president of Zambia Society for Public Administration and Society for Family Business.