7 Things Nottingham Can Learn from Leicester's Historic Win

3 May 2016

Congratulations to Leicester City, our neighbours, are definitely in order this morning! Their unlikely victory, and exciting success story will no doubt be talked about for years to come - and rightly so! It’s big news in the footballing world, and proof that money isn’t the only way to the top, but what else can we learn from Leicester City’s win? As City of Football, Nottingham is always looking out for inspiration:

 

1. Successful leaders learn from their mistakes. Claudio Ranieri brought 30 years of experience as a manager to Leicester when he took over last July, but he had never won anything in England before and had a reputation for meddling a bit too much with his team choices. At Leicester he resisted doing that. It’s not always easy to know what to change, but as City of Football we’re definitely keen to look at what’s worked in the past - and what hasn’t - and learn from those mistakes, just like Ranieri.
2. Small can triumph over big. They may not have had the budgets of the bigger clubs, but Leicester still looked at their techniques, their strategies and their approaches - and learned from them. A big part of what we’re hoping to achieve with City of Football is about shared learning - and supporting grassroots football to access some of the ideas and strategies of big club football to achieve success.
3. Have faith in what you have, not what you wish you had. Throughout the season Leicester have been modest and quietly confident about the skillset they have. We know we have some incredible players, coaches, clubs and communities here in Nottingham and we want to make the most of them. Being City of Football isn’t about wishing to have more or to be different - it’s about celebrating everything we do have and encouraging more people to get involved.
4. Focus on the team: we’re stronger together. “We fight for each other on the pitch,” Ranieri said. “We are 11 when we go on to the field and in all my career I don’t think I have known a team as strong at being together.” We’re big fans of partnership working at City of Football - by teaming up with the big names and the grassroots clubs; the arts and the sports fans; the players and the coaches - we can achieve so much more together and we never lose our confidence in the city as a whole.
5. Doing is better than dreaming. Forget the wish list - it’s all about the action. Sport of all kinds is a good reminder that practise makes for much better players, and persevering is vital. Small incremental changes, small improvements, small teams - they can all achieve big results as long as you focus on doing not dreaming.
6. We can all be inspired by our past. Leicester residents will be inspired by this win for years to come. Forest went from being at the bottom of the second division to winning the Championship, the League Cup and the European Cup - twice. There is so much to inspire us in Forest’s story, just as there is so much to inspire us in Leicester’s story. Aim high!
7. And finally - start young! We want people of all ages to find their football here in Notts, but we understand how important it is for long term health to start enjoying football from an early age. Special mention has to be made here of Wes Morgan. He spent the majority of his career with his boyhood club, Nottingham Forest, where he developed his talents. He was their longest-serving player when he transferred to Leicester City in January 2012 - and we like to think those Nottingham roots contributed to his success as Captain at Leicester!