Who did it better? Comparing the fantastic Foxes to Blackburn's 1995 title winners

On May 14, 1995, the FA Premier League concluded its third season in existence. When the dust settled, Blackburn Rovers found themselves at the top of the table.

Shockingly beating out Manchester United for the title, Blackburn had only been competing in the top flight since the founding of the Premier League in 1992. For the 26 years prior, the Rovers were looking to get back to the glory of the club's early days.

On that same day in 1995, Leicester City were relegated from the Premier League after finishing twenty-first out of 22 teams.

For 22 seasons, Leicester traversed up and down the top three divisions in English football, eventually regaining promotion to the Premier League on three separate occasions. Since 2014, the Foxes have been in the top flight while Blackburn has been in the second division since 2012.

With one club long-since fallen out of prominence, another is set to carry the torch.

Both championship seasons had an air of unlikeliness, and have a few similarities as well.

1. Transfers

In summer of 1994, Blackburn manager Kenny Dalglish looked to improve upon his club's second place finish in the Premier League a year ago, and spent some big money on a few notable players. However, he still spent less than the likes of Manchester United and his other competitors.

Many people feel as if Blackburn used its money to buy the 1995 Premier League title. In an article by The Guardian, it was revealed that although the Rovers spent big bucks on a striker tandem and a goalkeeper, which was about all the expenditures in its starting eleven made up of returning players.

The same can be said about Leicester City. While most of Leicester's players this season were purchased, they were bought for a small fee in the offseason.

However, Leicester's key players this season -€” Jamie Vardy, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez, Kasper Schmeichel, and Wes Morgan -€” were all on the team last season.

So while both Blackburn and Leicester made some key acquisitions for their starting lineups prior to title-contending campaigns, there were crucial foundations of players for both teams to build from during the transfer window.

There was a "moneyball" mentality present in both these title-winning stories. Rather than spending millions on star players, both squads purchased players who were either out-of-favor or available for a low cost.

2. Coaching

Managerially, the clubs are very similar as well.

Dalglish took over Blackburn when the Rovers were a mid-table team in the second division, earned promotion, and worked his way to the precipice.

Claudio Ranieri inherited Leicester after it was nearly relegated from the Premier League a season prior, and brought the club to prominence within a season.

3. Strikers

Blackburn's Alan Shearer and Leicester's Jamie Vardy, both English, played crucial roles in leading their clubs to Premier League titles. Shearer and Vardy were purchased by their clubs for record breaking fees -€” Shearer for an English record 3.6 million pounds, Vardy for a non-league record one million pounds.

Both forwards played alongside a new strike partner in their title-winning campaign -€” Shearer with Chris Sutton and Vardy with Shinji Okazaki -€” and were among the league leaders in goals.

4. Awards

Shearer was awarded as the PFA Players' Player of the Year Award, becoming the first Blackburn player to receive the award. Likewise, Riyad Mahrez became Leicester's first recipient of the prize during the Foxes title-winning season.

Shearer also won the Premier League Player of the Year Award in 1995, a prize claimed by Vardy in 2016.

Both clubs' head coaches won Manager of the Month in November, and had a striker win Player of the Month at the same time.

The two teams also had the most players selected to the PFA Team of the Year in their championship season -€” Blackburn with six, Leicester tied Tottenham with four.