It's one of those things. Leicester City win the Premier League, Connacht Rugby win the PRO12 and all of a sudden it's the year of the underdog and we're trying to figure out who will be the next team to 'do a Leicester'.
For those who are trying hard not to pay attention, 'doing a Leicester' involves overcoming serious odds to win the ultimate prize.
When it was put to former Leicester City manager Martin O'Neill that the Republic of Ireland could 'do a Leicester'; O'Neill thought that this was unrealistic:
I think it is unrealistic. Leicester have come up and what they have achieved is phenomenal, at club level. It’s obviously the highlight of the century so far, but I’m not so sure you can draw that comparison with things.
That's kind of the point of 'doing a Leicester' though isn't it? It's all about the unrealistic becoming reality. Just because the 'very best players playing for their countries - Spain, Germany having all their best players available' doesn't mean that the Premier League doesn't have teams at the top who were better than Leicester.
The Republic of Ireland are 175/1 to win the Euros, so while it's not the 5,000/1; it would be greater than the 150/1 that Greece were priced at for Euro 2004.
It's perhaps time we left the Leicester comparisons alone for a bit, and just heralded the midlands club on their success. Who knows, maybe they'll come back next season and show it wasn't a fluke.
That would be some story wouldn't it?
But that seems a bit unrealistic...
[Irish Examiner]
See Also: Can We Please Stop Comparing Every Underdog Story To Leicester City?
Photo by David Maher/Sportsfile
