It must be noted that this same Leicester city were on the brinks of getting relegated from the EPL in the 2014/2015 season, before a spirited fight for survival made them escape relegation, and finish in a relatively comfortable 14th position, which is very very respectable for a team that just gained promotion to the topflight in England. Italian Claudio Raineri, a seasoned runner up as coach of Chelsea, Monaco and Roma in England, France and Italy, was hired to be the manager of the foxes, and the rest as they say, is history.
One could be tempted to say that the Foxes won the league because big teams like manchester united, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea stuttered, but credit must be given to Mahrez, Vardy, Kante, Morgan, Huth and co, as they showed spirit of champions throughout the season grinding up victories without fear, with only Arsenal having the honor as the team that defeated leicester city home and away.
Looking ahead to the 2016/2017 season and the task ahead for Mahrez and Leicester city, one has to ask, WHICH WAY TO GO?
There are many ways to look at it for Mahrez, big spending teams like Chelsea and Manchester city have announced the signing of new top class managers Conte and Pep Guardiola, which definitely signifies a new era for them, both managers are proven league title winners with Pep winning the league in Spain with Barcelona, and in Germany with Bayern Munich, and Conte winning the league in Italy with Juventus three times in a row. There are whispers around old trafford that Jose Mourinho will take over from LVG as Manchester United manager. with this in mind, and knowing how difficult it is to win the EPL back to back in recent years, (you only need to ask chelsea how they went from beign league champions to a team not going to Europe), its going to be a herculean task for leicester city to retain the EPL title, but not one that cannot be surmounted.
There are two ways to go for the Young Algerian, the BIG-MONEY TRANSFER way or the LOYALTY way. Lets take at which way recent PFA players of the year before Mahrez went, starting with the Belgian, EDEN HAZARD. A skillfull winger just like Mahrez, he decided to stay with Chelsea, after winning the award and winning the EPL with Chelsea. The Chelsea triumph and Leicester City triumph are similar, in that both teams relied on having a injury-free season to winning the EPL, using virtually the same set of players for every match. Since winning that award, Hazard went more than 20 matches in the 2015/2016 season without scoring a goal for Chelsea, and was majorly criticized for the poor performances of his team, and was a shadow of himself as compared to the previous season, need i say Mahrez can suffer the same fate? especially if Leicester city fail to recruit more players that can strenghten the squad in areas of need, as they would be participating in 4 major competitions next season.
THE LUIS SUAREZ WAY: Riyad can go the Luis Suarez way who moved to Barcelona after winning the PFA player of the year award, and went on to win an incredible set of trophies with Barcelona in his first season and has been a instant hit since then. one could say the inability of Liverpool to win the EPL made him to leave, but this big-money transfer is a way Mahrez can go, as he can switch to Real Madrid or Barcelona when they come calling, and earn higher wages, and win trophies.
THE GARETH BALE WAY: The Algerian was relatively unknown in the EPL before taking the world by storm, so therefore, he can toe the path of Gareth Bale who helped Spurs qualify for the UCL in the 2010/2011 season, winning the PFA player of the year award afterwards, which can be likened to how Mahrez has helped Leicester city to win the EPL. Bale ignored transfer rumors and did stay with Tottenham Hotspur and sort of RE-PROVED his talent seasons after, and did win the award again in the 2012/2013 season before then teaming up with Real Madrid and has since gone on to win important trophies there.
Only Mark Hughes, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry,Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale have won the award on two occasions, and only Henry and Ronaldo have won the award in consecutive seasons, Of the five, only Shearer won his awards playing for two different teams.
RIYAD MAHREZ is the first African to win the PFA player of the year award, and he is on course to dethrone Aubameyang as the CAF footballer of the year, its up to the Algerian to choose which way to go, as there is loyalty which can make one go into oblivion like in the case of Hazard, but there is also loyalty that can make him win the award back to back like Cristiano Ronaldo did in the 2006/2007, 2007/2008 seasons and Thierry Henry, in the 2002/2003, 2003/2004 seasons.
Goodluck Mahrez, the final decision is yours.
