Tuesday, May 10, 2016

On Leicester, football and city -- with a musical interlude to boot.

Prior to the start of the campaign, oddsmakers tabbed Leicester City at 5,000 - 1 to win the Premier League title.

The Premier League is an English professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Football League. Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify.

But Leicester City did just that, and Kasabian's Serge Pizzorno is living his dream after the Premier League title win.

Let's pause for a number.



Serge is the thin, bearded guitar player.

Meanwhile, The Economist provides yet another urban renewal lesson for New Albany to ignore,in spite of the fact that our team won the title, too.

Leicester’s success: Foxes and tigers, at The Economist

... What people might find is that it is not just the football club, but the city (population: 340,000) that has plenty to share. Leicester was for good reason chosen as the first stop on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee tour of the country in 2012. In some ways it is the epitome of modern Britain. Locals argue that the footballing triumph is but the validation of Leicester’s re-emergence as a city; a mix of long-term ambition and unflashy, organic growth.

“Leicester clothes the world” was the slogan when the city was full of hosiers and bootmakers; in 1936 it was named as the second-richest city in Europe. But in the 1980s Leicester lost almost all this to cheap overseas competition. Rebuilding the devastated economy has been a painful task, but is now bearing fruit.

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