5000-1.
You can't blame the lads at Paddy Power for setting those odds for Leicester City to win the Premier League title for the 2015/16 season.
However, currently sitting five points clear at the top with seven games remaining, Leicester are in the driver's seat to accomplish the greatest underdog victory in football, perhaps sport itself.
Leicester's success this season is momentous in more ways than one. It is not only the odds that they are defying, but also the conventions of modern day football in general and therein lies the simple fact:
Leicester must win the Premier League title.
At the start of the campaign, the Foxes early-season form was met with the typical skepticism. The low level club riding the momentum, winning a few big games here and there, eventually the fuel will run out, and they will celebrate their mid-table finish at the end of the season as a complete and utter success.
This is the life of clubs outside English football's oligarchy, approaching each year with the aim of surviving relegation first and foremost, and then hoping to sneak into the Europa League.
The Champions League is a pipe dream. To be champions is an impossibility.
The five most expensive squads in the Premier League, in stats compiled by talkSPORT, comprise of Manchester City (€560 million), Manchester United (€533 million), Chelsea (€407 million), Liverpool (€344 million) and Arsenal (€305 million). Leicester ranked 17th with a squad value of €72 million.
The Big Five's financial and commercial interests are being hindered by the lack of success of their product on the pitch.
To highlight this fact, earlier this month, executives from each of the Big Five clubs met with American businessman and International Champions Cup organiser Stephen Ross to discuss plans of a breakaway competition to rival the Champions League for Europe's richest clubs.
Following these revelations, Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri was quick to dismiss the plans with a rousing response.
"People must think what the fans want, not only about money,' said the Italian. "Because culture and the fans are more important than other things.
"All the fans want sport to be very clear, for there to be respect for everybody. I understand the bigger teams want to be sure to get money and don't want to lose one year without Champions League. But this is sport.
"For one year you don't achieve this, you want to make something different? I think it's not right. You are afraid. You are not strong. You are afraid to lose money. It's not good for the sport. Because after what happens? There are four or five teams from each country, and the rest, what do they do?
"I understand they want to do something but if something strange happens, don't blame the little teams. They have to blame themselves. Maybe they have a good idea. But they should ask: 'Why is a little team like Leicester doing better than us?'"
With his club leading the Premier League and almost guaranteed a spot in next year's Champions League, a reaction like this is no surprise, but nevertheless his response is both concise and factual.
Leicester embodies what is often lost in modern day sports.
Where as clubs like those in the Big Five have thrown money at their problems, Leicester has instilled a sense of camaraderie, teamwork and solidarity.
This not a quick-fix solution, it has taken time, patience and the scouting over character - not just ability - that has enabled them to build a proper team.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel commented on what makes the dressing room at the King Power Stadium so special.
"There's so much respect between all the players in the dressing room, which creates a good spirit. It means you can have a lot of laughs and jokes at and with each other, because you know the respect is there," said the Dane.
"We're a group of players that in football terms has been together for a long time, three or four years for some of us. We're a group that's experienced some great highs and some quite horrible lows.
"So it's brought the team very much together, and there's a core of players that know the values of the team, the values of the club."
Schmeichel isn't wrong; the club has experienced some shocking lows. 7 years ago, they were in League One and spent the following five seasons in the Championship before being promoted to the top flight for the 2014/15 season.
The squad is filled with remarkable stories, from Jamie Vardy, who has transitioned from non-league footballer to Premier League leading goal scorer and England international in the space of 5 years.
To Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante, who were picked up as relative unknowns in the French lower leagues and have since, become stars, the latter having been called up to the France squad for this weekend's friendlies.
The fairytale is nearly complete and the Foxes have shown in recent matches that are ready to go all the way. Their last four victories have all finished with a 1-0 score line. Many see this as the sign of a true champion.
Standout fixtures for their remaining matches are trips to Manchester United and reigning champions Chelsea - on the last day of the season - and home clashes against West Ham United and Everton, but no match will be easy and each one will become tenser as this remarkable season draws to its end.
Leicester's nearest rival, Tottenham Hotspur, ironically faces nearly the exact same opponents as Leicester, however they must make one extra away trip than the Foxes.
French midfielder Kante, who was plucked from lowly Normandie outfit Caen in the summer, said recently that Ranieri has allowed for an environment can be played without fear.
"Ranieri manages the group well," said the 24-year-old.
"As soon as safety from relegation was achieved, he told us that anything else that we achieve from that point onwards was a bonus and that we should not be scared.
"Nor should we hesitate about the situation that we were in.
"We are carefree and we are having an exceptional season that we want to finish well. That is why we all defend for the team."
And defend for the team they must, for as the season draws to a dramatic crescendo, Leicester have the opportunity to produce one of the most significant upsets in history and almost just as important, to restore faith in the sanctity of football.
By Andrew Maclean
