Can Leicester City and Chris Wood Make It in the Premier League?

Kiwi football fans are probably keeping a bit of an eye on the progress of Leicester City Football Club - as are all its faithful fans from Leicestershire.

The news is very good and the prospects for the future are quite promising with the Foxes a whopping 7 points clear of 2nd placed Burnley in the Championship and another 10 points away from 3rd placed Derby - effectively a 17 point gap to automatic promotion to the bright lights of the Premier League next season.

After a slowish start, Leicester found their form just before Christmas and have been hot ever since, having overhauled fast starters Derby County, Burnley and QPR.

It's all thanks to the goals of former England striker, David Nugent and strike partner, Jamie Vardy, as well as their ex-Manchester United midfield of Danny Drinkwater and Matty James, and a solid defence featuring captain, Wes Morgan, former England international, Paul Konchesky and keeper, Kasper Schmeichel, son of the great Peter Schmeichel.

Leicester have been scoring goals aplenty in the Championship particularly at home at the King Power Stadium and with 68 goals scored, they have scored the most goals in the whole division while letting in only 33.

So Leicester are set for automatic promotion to the Premier League after years of under delivering and Nigel Pearson is set for his first crack at the big time.

But can Leicester stay up in the Premier League? That's another matter.

Leicester do have quite a bit of financial clout behind them thanks to their Thai owners and I would expect them to strengthen heavily in the summer transfer window, possibly taking advantage of the clubs that are relegated from the Premier League. While Leicester do have a good squad right now, the rigours of Premier League football mean that they will definitely need to strengthen in quality if they are to be competitive and stay up.

But I think they have a good chance - the long term project of this rejuvenated Leicester side since the Thai owners took over was to get the Foxes back into the Premier League and then keep them there as a Premier League side just as they were in the 1990s under Martin O'Neill. Expect the funds to flow to make Leicester City a Premier League mainstay club.

Will flying Kiwi, Chris Wood finally get his chance in the Premier League?

As for Kiwi fans, don't despair - while Chris Wood hasn't been quite as prolific as last season, he should feature next season with competition to start to begin afresh for the new season - and Wood is highly rated at the club. He will be keen to show whoever comes into the club that he is worthy of Premier League football.