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KingandPaynter 3:26 Tue May 3
Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Its remarkable but it's not the Greatest upset of all time. If they win it again next year and the Champions League then that would be incredible. Leicester had a large dollop of luck. No major injuries to key players all season for example. No European games to sap their fitness like all the other top 6 teams (WHU included) our season started in early July (ffs)

If Carroll and Payet were fully fit and had played all season we'd have been in the Top 3 easy this year. Glad they pipped Spurs though, they are fast becoming the Leeds Utd of the new millenia, 9 bookings in that game tonight, 5 of their players could have been sent off, Dier, Rose, Vertonghen, Dembele and that's the 2nd week on TV that Walker has kicked an opponent... All on the back of the Alli punch last week.

Greatest enduring sporting achievements are like the following

Ali beating George Foreman to win the World Heavyweight Boxing title for the 3rd time. Now that took some balls to take all that punishment for 9 rounds until Foreman got tired. Up to that point it was 27 mins of having one of the hardest punchers in the world go at your arms, head, ribs and shoulders. That is punishment and human endurance.

555 straight consecutive wins by Jahangir Khan, Pakistan's legendary squash player.

Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hit streak

The God inspired - South Africa winning the 1995 Rugby WC Final right after apartheid was ended that united a country...

Sachin Tendulkar a Century of Centuries in International Cricket.

The Joker 12:05 Wed May 4
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Northern Sold 10:46 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Absolutely mate. Best ever British manager in my eyes.

ironsofcanada 11:11 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Eerie Descent 11:06 Tue May 3

Ha. That old chestnut.

But why bore me by telling what you would do. I don't care.

Bookies set the odds, facts don't. End of.

Eerie Descent 11:06 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Canada, I know you're trying to bore everyone into submission, but clearly we're not stating it as cast iron fact just because of the bookies, in fact, if Leicester were 100,000/1 to finish in the top 4 before a ball was kicked, I wouldn't have wasted a pound, and I doubt anyone bar a few Leicester fans would have either.

ironsofcanada 11:02 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

I don't know much about bookies but the more I read the less you can use them to make any kind of factual determination.

Northern Sold 10:57 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Good piece here re the bookies and the 5000/1 odds...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/03/5000-1-outsider-leicester-city-bookmakers

Football backers are creatures of habit. They like to bet the “big” teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, and they try to overcome the inevitable short odds by stitching their fortunes together in accumulator bets. If just one team fails to win, the whole bet goes down, and this season, the big names have all been failing with metronomic regularity.

The collective underperformance of the “big” teams is evident in the placed runners behind Leicester. Tottenham started the campaign at 150-1, while West Ham, who could yet sneak into the top four, were 3,000-1.

Alex Donohue, who handles Ladbrokes’ football PR, acknowledged this point on Tuesday. “It’s a falsehood if any bookie says they have lost money overall on Leicester,” Donohue said on Twitter. “£3m is a record net payout for a title winner, but we did well out of Leicester upsetting the odds to get there. No complaints at all.”

The bookies may have made a net loss on the outright “win” market for the Premier League, but that liability was handsomely offset by their winnings from the results of the 380 matches, on the weekend coupons and Sunday’s high-profile televised games in particular.

normannomates 10:55 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Agree on clough Sold.
Doubt he'd be successful in modern game..not with the precious little darlings nowadays.
Liked a booze and not adverse to the odd scrap..even on the pitch.
Top man.
Loved him just for showing up Leeds Utd

East Auckland Hammer 10:51 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Here you go, you can strike the Springboks victory from your list:

"The All Blacks really were poisoned during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, a former police commander involved in the team's security says.

Rory Steyn, who was chief bodyguard to South African president Nelson Mandela, said the All Blacks were poisoned prior to the 1995 Rugby World Cup final against hosts South Africa, but infamous waitress Suzie may not be to blame.

He believes it was betting syndicates who were behind the poisoning, given the amount of money that could be made from a shock upset."

As I said.

Not that it matters now, of course.

Schoffie 10:51 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Bookies are lazy sorting decent odds. Ok online but on the high street pretty shit. A 5-1 win over mancs next Tuesday will only be 100/1 same as Blackburn in f.a.cup.

Gavros 10:46 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Curve not cute

Northern Sold 10:46 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

The Joker 8:10 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?
Don't know about sporting but it's up there in English football. But for me it's still not quite up with Forest & Clough.

In consecutive seasons:

Promoted.
English Champions.
European champions.
Retain European cup.

That will NEVER be done again.


Also taking on and beating arguably the greatest British Club side ever seen (Liverpool)... truly remarkable man was ol' Big Ead

Gavros 10:45 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

I'm not confusing anything. How is it objectively possible to work out a probabilistic bell cute of a specific sporting event ex post? The only comparable method is to look at bookmakers odds as that is quite literall where te money is.

ironsofcanada 10:39 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Eerie Descent 10:35 Tue May 3

I guess that the point, things that were factually impossibly were better odds.

So there is something wrong with judging it based just on odds.

Eerie Descent 10:35 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

No one is getting carried away, comma. But the facts and stats speak for themselves. Hence the fucking odds by the bookies.

geoffpikey 10:29 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Gavros 9:40 Tue May 3

You're again confusing bookmakers' odds with logical probability and/or possibility and achievement. As is most of the media.

To beat bookies trying to fleece loyal Leicester fans with "stupidly" tempting odds before season started does NOT = greatest achievement. It just means it's the biggest upset for bookmakers! And that is funny, as bookies nearly always win overall.

Well done Leicester, their achievement is remarkable and it's good for the game... regardless of betting.

Personally? I think Forest's persistent acsendency to European champs (and their other trophies of that era) was even more impressive. They came from "nowhere" and, for a while at least, stayed.

Or Arsenal's "Invincibles" anyone? They didn't lose a single game. Hate them or hate them, that's a great achievement.

, 10:13 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

We should not get carried away with the PL hype. This season the top clubs have been dropping points to lower clubs like never before. What has made it more exciting is a certain levelling of the playing field. Long may it continue.

ironsofcanada 10:11 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Gavros 10:07 Tue May 3

It is, if darts is.

Mr Anon 10:08 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

I guess bookies can calculate the odds of winning the lottery twice, but err on the side of caution on the Elvis thing as they didn't bury him personally!

ironsofcanada 10:08 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Maybe the learned their lesson with Leicester

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36138413/10-things-bookies-thought-more-likely-than-leicester-winning-the-premier-league

Gavros 10:07 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

"According to the BBC they found the Elvis thing on Paddy Power at 2000-1 at the time.

But does this qualify"

Hide and seek is not strictly a sport no matter whether Elvis has been playing it for the past 39 years or otherwise.

Marston Hammer 10:05 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2015-04-01/bookmakers-more-chance-of-finding-elvis-alive-than-winning-the-lottery-twice/

ironsofcanada 10:01 Tue May 3
Re: Greatest Sporting achievement of all time. Leicester City ?

Marston Hammer 8:43 Tue May 3

It's not a joke to some people.

According to the BBC they found the Elvis thing on Paddy Power at 2000-1 at the time.

But does this qualify.

Another one I heard last night was the odds were better that Christmas would be the hottest day of the year in London. Don't remember the odds but it better than Leicester. Scientifically possible.

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