Top-10 finish should be the aim for champions Leicester City – Heskey

Former Leicester City striker Emile Heskey believes a top-10 finish should be the aim for the Premier League champions this season.

Claudio Ranieri’s men stunned the football world in 2015-16 by landing the title despite starting the campaign as one of the favourites for relegation.

Leicester have managed to retain the bulk of the squad that lifted the trophy in May – midfielder N’Golo Kante the only notable departure – but Heskey is still downplaying their chances of a repeat success.

He told Omnisport: “You can never say never, but for me personally I would say a top-10 finish is sufficient.

“If you looked at it realistically last season, staying up was the aim. I was saying when they get to that 40 points, the magic 40 points to stay up, [it was time to] breathe but they kept going on and on and on and it became a reality.

“I think we’ve still got to look at that 40 points and then say top 10 is a realistic aim.”

Leicester’s achievement last season means they will line up alongside Europe’s elite in the Champions League and Heskey believes the Foxes could cause a few upsets.

He added: “There are not many teams that are going to know much about them. They’re going to have to watch a lot of videos to understand how they play.  

“They [the opposition] know about [Jamie] Vardy now because of international football, but not many people are going to know about the full squad and the way they play. So you could actually expect a couple of upsets. But it’s just about taking it one step at a time and enjoying the environment because Leicester want to be in the environment more and more.”