Cult Heroes and Club Icons: Fantastic Foxes following Forest's path
Nearly four decades before Leicester City was on the precipice of stunning the English top flight with an unanticipated run at glory, Nottingham Forest set the benchmark for shocking title triumphs.
Like Claudio Ranieri's lot, Forest's famed gaffer, Brian Clough, achieved the unthinkable with a squad littered with inexperienced youngsters, castaways, and underachievers.
Unlike Premier League darlings Leicester, Forest captured the then-Division 1 championship in its return to the first tier after a six-year hiatus, a ravishing run that bewildered even the most outlandish of pundit's picks.
With five matches left, Leicester is poised to hoist the Premier League trophy, returning the title to the East Midlands for the first time since Nottingham Forest captured it in spectacular fashion 38 years ago.
Promotion by the slimmest margins
Before Forest shocked the footballing world by winning the 1977-78 Division 1 title, Clough's lot languished in the second tier for five seasons, finishing no better than seventh.
Forest was promoted by virtue of finishing third in the second division in one of the more contested campaigns on record. Wolverhampton won the league on 57 points, with Chelsea finishing second on 52. Forest ended the campaign on 52, edging out Bolton and Blackpool by a point.
Only 26 points separated first-place Wolves and last-place Hereford United, with the top 10 spots decided by 17 points. Three points for a win wasn't introduced until the 1981-82 season.
Understandably, third-place promotion by a mere point meant Nottingham's vault to the top flight was tempered by low expectations.
Leicester-like signings prompt success
The similarities between Leicester City and Nottingham Forest are more than simply geographical.
While Ranieri and Clough's personalities could not be more polarised, the Italian a purveyor of poise, while the 'Boro-born gaffer was perpetually on the brink of touch-line eruption.
Ranieri has earned the moniker "The Tinkerman" for his penchant for making minor alterations, while Clough relied on his players' assets and not positional ploys, prompting the famed response from the former striker: "Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes."
Giving the managerial credit solely to Clough would be unfair to his long-time assistant manager, Peter Taylor.
"I am the shop front, he is the goods at the back," Clough said of Taylor, whose expertise in the transfer market the summer before a top-flight return played a vital job for Forest.
Like Ranieri's successes have been guided by Leicester's head of recruitment Steve Walsh's pivotal summer signings, Taylor played a massive role in bringing in three key players for the top-flight campaign.
Peter Shilton, 125-time capped England shot-stopping legend, was bought from Stoke City for £325,000, then a record fee for a 'keeper.
Shilton was joined by Scottish midfielder and Trainspotting favourite Archie Gemmill from Derby in a swap move that saw Tricky Trees' netminder John Middleton go the other way, and Glasgow-born Kenny Burns was bought from Birmingham City for a fee of £150,000.
No player was as emblematic of Forest's rise more than Burns, who at Birmingham was characterised as a live wire. Rumour has it that Burns' tendencies for the tacky and tawdry were a red light for other clubs, though it was Taylor who hid in the shadows at the local dog park observing the forward.
Signing the unheralded and overlooked like Burns became part of Taylor's legend in a fashion similar to Walsh's then-anonymous acquisitions of N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez.
Traditionally a striker, Clough and Taylor moved Burns to the back where he appeared in 55 matches as a defender paired with Larry Lloyd. The rest was history, as Burns overcame a shaky start to win the Footballer of the Year award at season's end.
An astonishing campaign
Amid scant hopes and even less optimism, Forest won its first three top-flight matches.
Through its first 13 league matches, Forest suffered only one defeat - a 3-0 loss at Arsenal - and two draws (to Norwich City and West Ham) to build a gap over heavy favourites Liverpool.
Clough's lot then lost two of their next three away at Chelsea and Leeds United before going on a 26-match unbeaten run to finish the season. Forest finished on top, seven points clear of Liverpool while boasting 69 goals scored and only 24 conceded.
Peter Withe and John Robertson were joint-top scorers on the team with 12 each, while Tony Woodcock had 11 and future Leicester and Celtic gaffer Martin O'Neill tallied eight.
As unexpected as the Division 1 title was, perhaps the writing was on the wall all along. Forest did not lose any of its 14 preseason matches, and suffered defeat in only four of its 70 fixtures in all competitions on its way to a League Cup finals victory over Liverpool for a domestic double.
Coincidences and correlation
Like Leicester City's miraculous run, Nottingham Forest had been blessed by good health and surprised performances.
Clough used only 17 first-team players during the 1977-78 campaign, one of whom was teenage shot-stopper Chris Woods, who had made one League Cup appearance. Ranieri only needed 20 players this season.
The similarities don't end there, as both sides thrived with mature defensive performances. Though it didn't start that way, with Ranieri offering his lot pizza for each clean sheet, the Foxes have been on a run of shrewd defending, keeping six shutouts in its last seven matches.
An impregnable wall in the mold of Foxes' 'keeper Kasper Schmeichel years before he was but a glimmer in the eyes of his five-time, league-winning father, Peter, Shilton was a clean sheet machine for Forest. He allowed just 18 goals over the final 37 matches, while Forest conceded just 24 goals during the 1977-78 season, and only eight at the City Ground.
"I do see parallels," Shilton offered when asked about the similarities between the two sides. "They've got a great spine to the team, which is what we had at Forest.
"The two centre halves are big imposing figures who don't mess around and know how to put a tackle in, just like we had with Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns."
While the previously unknown Mahrez has been one of Leicester's breakout stars this season, Shilton sees many similarities between he and 12-goal Robertson.
"Riyad Mahrez has come from nowhere," added Shilton, "a bit like John Robertson did for us. He's that sort of tricky winger that defenders hated playing against."
Nottingham Forest parlayed the successes of the 1977-78 season into two successive European Cup wins. Only time will tell if Leicester can do the same.
Two clubs from the East Midlands shocked English football nearly four decades apart, and while each story is unique, together they emerge as an analogous tale separated only by time.