What History Says About Leicester City’s Chances of More Premier League Success

Moments of triumph are often fleeting, even in the case of Leicester City. Their Premier League win will take a while to sink in, but questions are already being asked of the Foxes’ staying power. Can they take their shock streak and turn it into something more sustained? Are they here to stay? 

Of course, much of that depends on whether Leicester can keep hold of their best players over the summer. Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Kasper Schmeichel, to name a few, have won plenty of admirers over the past nine months or so and will have their suitors ahead of the 2016/7 campaign.

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri believes he can keep the core of his squad together.

Per the Press Association (h/t the Daily Mail), he said:

I want to enjoy but I feel it is possible maybe to keep all the players.

It is important for us but it is important also for them because they don’t know the Champions League.

If they go away, it is not good for them. It is much better if they improve another year here and then go wherever they want.

But I have said so many times if one player comes to me and says ‘Gaffer, I want to go’, then I leave him to go because it is okay.

Indeed, the attraction of UEFA Champions League football will prove valuable in not only persuading Leicester’s best players to remain at the King Power Stadium, but also in luring new talent to the club. But even if Mahrez and others stay, can the Foxes really hope to replicate their astonishing achievement?

History sets a mixed precedent. Take Montpellier’s Ligue 1 triumph, for instance. La Paillade were perhaps the last club to truly upset the established order in any of European football’s so-called big leagues, winning the 2011/12 league championship with a golden generation of players.

With Olivier Giroud as their frontman, Montpellier became top-flight champions for the first time—just like Leicester this season.

However, after their best players were poached by more illustrious clubs, Montpellier finished the following season in a lowly ninth position, …

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