THE remarkable success of Leicester City has apparently left supporters of football clubs throughout the land pondering ‘why not us?’.

A perfect storm has seen the Foxes claim the Premier League title. A group of tight players have avoided injury and fought for each other, showing mental strength while the big guns around them floundered.

It is a shock that is said to have given hope to those outside the traditional Champions League teams: it’s not all about money – organisation and team spirit has won the day under a wonderfully polite manager who has shown there is no need for mind games.

Even when we inevitably go back to normal next year, the Leicester story will live on.

City may have been bankrolled by a Thai billionaire who has ploughed more that £100million into the club – and they are still being investigated by the Football League over concerns they breached financial fair play rules when coming up from the Championship – but this is still an underdog tale.

Their success will be a thorn in the side of managers who bemoan their lack of funds: winning cups is unlikely given the resources of the Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool but it is clearly not impossible.

However, cash is still king in professional sport as those at Rodney Parade will testify.

It has undeniably been a shocking season for Newport Gwent Dragons despite another excellent European Challenge Cup campaign.

They will record their lowest tally of Celtic League wins and will finish with only the Italian pair of Zebre and Treviso beneath them.

In mitigation the Dragons have suffered a horrendous injury list but this has unquestionably been yet another campaign of underachievement, one that has led to the departure of director of rugby Lyn Jones and will make it a tough summer for those at Rodney Parade trying to shift season tickets.

When Jones took the reins in the summer of 2013 he inherited a Newport Gwent Dragons side that had finished one from the bottom of the Guinness Pro12.

They had won just six games in that league campaign and could only total 28 points to leave them looking up at everyone apart from Zebre.

This season they have endured a Celtic League record of 10 losing bonus points but for all the near-misses it is hard to see where they have progressed in the past three years.

In 2015 they finished above Cardiff Blues but we are back in the familiar position of the Dragons being the bottom region, wearing the tag of Wales’ worst for a ninth time out of 13 seasons.

There are familiar grumblings and solutions are not easy.

The frustration has been exacerbated by the success of Connacht, who will be in play-off action in a fortnight’s time, possibly on home soil.

They are certainly an example for the Dragons to follow but it must not be ignored that their success has been down to €.

They have risen thanks to more funding and have profited from more Irish-qualified project players to go along with their local boys.

This is not to decry the men from Galway – I hope they win the Pro12 if the Scarlets don’t – but merely pointing out their ascent has been helped by IRFU money to go along with team spirit fostered by their excellent coach Pat Lam.

It is through this investment that they are now in a position to attract better young Irish players from the other provinces; now talent will see the Sportsground as a place where they can press their international claims whereas before it had been seen as a backward step into anonymity (a fate suffered by the Dragons with the likes of Matthew Morgan preferring to knock back interest in favour of a move over the border).

The same goes for Glasgow, a club who used to mix it with Connacht and the Dragons in the bottom third.

Scottish Rugby Union funding has allowed Gregor Townsend, a tremendous boss who surely must be involved with the British and Irish Lions next year, to build a team gunning for a second title on the spin.

Newport Gwent Dragons realise this, hence their plea for new benefactors to come on board. No fresh backing – and it is backing, not investment – and there will be no change.

On BBC’s Scrum V programme on Sunday, Gwyn Jones reignited that oh-so-familiar development team argument.

"Unless something substantial changes you feel they're in this cycle of existing hand to mouth and just reproducing the same cycle each year,” he said.

"Look at Connacht - they are the model. They're now doing well and are in the top four so it (changing philosophy) isn't consigning them there for history,” he continued.

I admire Jones greatly as a pundit and while he is right on the need for something to change to break the cycle of underachievement, he is wide of the mark on the Connacht argument in terms of being a development side.

Where the Dragons need to mirror Ireland’s western province is in their recruitment – they have made some solid signings for next season but they are unlikely to have a Bundee Aki-esque impact.

Nonetheless, Leicester give hope to the rest of the Premier League and Connacht give the Dragons some reason for optimism.

If they can somehow find some more funding to attract quality players to go along with the current crop and the next generation then there is something to be excited about.

But despite the exploits of Ranieri’s Foxes, money talks.

HEAD coach Kingsley Jones said after the Judgement Day defeat to the Scarlets that the Dragons know they need to bolster their ranks for next season.

So far they have signed centre Sam Beard from Edinburgh, centre/wing Pat Howard from Northampton, props Sam Hobbs and Craig Mitchell from Cardiff Blues and fly-half/full-back Nick Mcleod from Sale Sharks.

But more investment is also needed in the management team as well as the playing roster if the Dragons are to improve next season.

Even when Lyn Jones was in situ the coaching staff was meagre and since the director of rugby’s departure Kingsley has been holding the fort with backs coach Shaun Connor plus a bit of help from academy coach Richie Rees. Former Scotland prop Bruce Douglas offers some part-time help up front but it’s not enough.

Whatever the Dragons board decide to do regarding Lyn Jones’ successor – whether it’s like for like or a change in structure – there needs to be more hands on deck at the Ystrad Mynach training base.