Leicester behind the scenes

Sky Sports’ Rob Dorsett talks us through his time behind the scenes at Leicester’s Premier League title celebrations.

A three-tiered cake, all in blue. Two water melons, carved with the faces of Claudio Ranieri and Jamie Vardy. A stuffed fox, draped in a Leicester scarf.

These are some of the more outlandish gifts that I’ve seen delivered to the King Power Stadium in the last week, in recognition of the most unlikely Premier League Champions.

It has been a strange week. A bizarre season. Captain Wes Morgan reflected on just how surreal it has all been when we spoke at the club’s training ground last week, the day after Spurs drew at Chelsea and that famous party at Jamie Vardy’s house in Melton Mowbray.

At that party, Morgan was seen lying on his back, being dragged along the kitchen floor by Marcin Wasilewski. Now, the morning after the night before, Morgan looked stunned. He didn’t know what to say, on or off camera.

“Rob, I can’t believe it. Who’d have thought it?” When I reminded him that he would be the one lifting the Premier League trophy, he was silent for a moment. He then started laughing quietly.

I’ve known Morgan since he was 17, when he came through the academy at Nottingham Forest alongside the likes of Michael Dawson and Jermaine Jenas.

In truth, Dawson and Jenas were always seen as the more stellar talents at the City Ground, by academy staff and fans alike, but it is Morgan who has gone on to greatness: his character is stamped all over the Leicester City squad.

Strength of mind and body, honesty, resilience, determination. Morgan is the leader on the pitch and in the dressing room. If you want a message to get through to the players, you go through Wes. If there’s a squad get-together to be sorted, Wes will sort it.

Frank Clark was the Nottingham Forest chairman who sold Morgan to Leicester in January 2012.

“I don’t think Wes was appreciated enough by anyone at Nottingham Forest,” he told me.

“The club had allowed him to get into the last year of his contract and he would have walked away for free in the summer. So in the end, we did well to persuade Leicester to pay £1m for him.

“But I don’t think anyone realised what a force, what a character Forest were losing.”

Now, that “force” is standing alone on the side of the training pitch, clutching a bottle of water, speechless. Overcome with emotion.

It was an amazing feeling at Leicester’s training ground last Tuesday. The club had kept a dozen or more camera crews and scores of reporters outside – we were the only live crew to be invited in.

I was so busy chatting to the players that Leicester’s head of media, Anthony Herlihy, had to prompt me to do the big interview of the day.

“Don’t you want to interview the manager?” he asked. Claudio Ranieri had been waiting a few metres away for a couple of minutes, apparently. By that time, …

continue reading in source www.skysports.com