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Leicester City Chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha (left) and Vice-Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha pictured during a Barclays Premier League match last year. PA Archive/Press Association Images

In 2014, Leicester's owner promised to turn them into a top-five club within 'three years'

The Thai billionaire businessman added that he spent a lot of time studying various clubs as he contemplated a potential takeover.

IT’S OFTEN BEEN said that ‘no one could have predicted’ Leicester’s astonishing rise over the past 12 months from relegation candidates to title contenders, but as it turns out, that’s not entirely accurate.

In 2014, after their promotion from the Championship into the Premier League, Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha vowed to turn them into a top-five club within three years.

“We want to stay in the Premier League as long as possible,” he told reporters, as quoted by The Leicester Mercury.

“But we won’t take the huge leap to challenge the league’s top five clubs immediately.

“Do we have a chance to beat them? Yes, we have, but I think we need to establish our foothold in the league first and then we think about our next step.

“It will take a huge amount of money, possibly 10 billion Thai Baht (just under £182 million/€235 million), to get there.

“But that doesn’t put us off. I am asking for three years, and we’ll be there.”

The Thai billionaire businessman added that he spent a lot of time studying various clubs as he contemplated a potential takeover, before he ultimately “fell in love with” Leicester.

“One reason was the team’s colours, which were the same as my company’s,” he added

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