When Leicester got promoted back to the Premier League in 2014, a footballing genie came to me in a dream.
‘I’ve got a few surprises for you…’, it said.
‘Over the next few years, you will see an unbelievable escape from an apparently certain threat of relegation.’
‘And then you will see your team win the Premier League, which will be the greatest and most ridiculously improbable sporting story ever.’
I shook my head and suppressed a disbelieving chuckle.
‘But that won’t be the end of it. You will go on to win the FA Cup and the Community Shield. You will reach the knockout stages of three different European competitions.’
‘Three?’ I raised an eyebrow.
The genie smiled and went on, ‘One season, you’ll go further in the Champions League than ony other English team. Also, you will see the first VAR goal scored in England’.
I looked puzzled, but the genie continued. ‘You will see spectacular goals and extraordinary comebacks. You will beat all of the biggest teams in England, several times each.’
‘In fact, over two particular seasons you’ll spent more time in the Premier League’s top four than any of those teams. In return, you’ll make over £300m selling them your best players.’
‘One of your players will break the record for goals scored in consecutive Premier League games, and - in a different season - will win the Golden Boot. You will record the biggest away win ever seen in the English top flight. And you will have two players in the top ten nominees of the Ballon d’Or.’
I looked sceptical. ‘You do know I’m a Leicester supporter?’
The genie nodded. ‘But of course this is football, so it won’t all be good: there will be shocking cup exits, agonising last minute defeats, terrible performances and managerial sackings. There will even, I’m afraid, be real tragedy.’
‘And then eventually, after nine years, the curtain will suddenly fall on this wildest of footballing rides, the chimes will strike midnight, and Leicester will revert to being Leicester. If you want all that to happen, you must promise me one thing.’
‘Of course I want that to happen’, I responded cautiously, ‘but…’
The genie ignored my reservations. ‘When those nine years are finally up, amid the anger and frustration of relegation, the “if only”s and the “might have been”s, you must promise to pause for a minute and reflect on your good fortune to be on the wildest, most astonishing ride that any football fans anywhere have ever enjoyed, or probably ever will.
‘A ride that - if it had been written in a fairy tale - no one would ever have believed was possible. Is that a deal?’
‘Obviously I don’t believe any of that is possible’, I replied, ‘but if it makes even some of what you’ve talked about happen then yes, of course I’m happy to make that promise’.
And it was so.
(This is a slightly edited version of a Twitter thread from April 2023 went viral, and which I discussed on BBC Radio Leicester.)