CLAUDIO RANIERI has helped a lucky Leicester fan buy his first house.
At the end of last season the Foxes
narrowly escaped relegation after winning seven of their last nine games.
Shrewd punter Leigh Herbert, 39, saw enough of his side to believe they
had an outside chance of carrying that form over and had a fiver on them
lifting the title this season.
The grateful
gambler has already banked £5,600, after cashing-out a portion of the
bet, and stands to pocket another £15,000 if his side can hold off
second-placed Spurs.
And he wants to reward the Italian for the windfall he will be using as a
deposit on a family home with a kiss and cuddle for making all his dreams
come true.
Herbert said: “I Googled it and had a look and saw it said 5000-1 and I
thought ‘that cannot be right’. Whoever has put those odds on could not have
watched Leicester last season.
“So I thought ‘I’ll have a pound on that’ but as I typed in one pound
something in my head ‘if this actually happens I am going to want to have
put more money on it’, so I deleted it and put a fiver on.
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— leigh herbert (@herb1977)
“I thought ‘anything is possible’ and Leicester can do it. But when I woke up
the next morning I was a little less confident.
“I would want to say thank you and give him a big hug, if I am honest. Not
just for my bet but for what he has done for Leicester, the team I have
supported since I was eight years old. No-one in their wildest dreams could
have expected what is happening at this moment in time.
“Everyone is saying it’s a fairytale and it really is.
“Every football fan in the country, every fan in the world, wants their team
to be where mine is now.
“I would just give him a big hug, a kiss on the cheek and say ‘thank you’.
“Claudio Ranieri is the one who has done it, he has been the person who has
orchestrated it all and got the team playing as they should.
“He has brought the best out of everyone so really, Ranieri has got me my
house, I think.”
racecourse red top hat because I can
— leigh herbert (@herb1977)