Fan's View: Sleepless Nights In Melbourne Well Worth It

It’s a cold Sunday night in Melbourne, the wife and kids are tucked up in bed and, with a big day at work coming up, I should be joining them.

However, as the clock ticks towards 11pm, I put the kettle on and feel the buzz that is usually reserved for five-year-olds on Christmas Eve. It’s back, the Premier League is back!

I prepare myself for the next eight months of sleepless weekends, early mornings and finding excuses to put back early meetings because the Development Squad are playing in the leasing.com Trophy.

There is a buzz about this season, but I'm competing with talk of the Ashes, Australian Football League and Rugby League finals for staff room conversations.

I slowly turn the conversations from Steve Smith or Patrick Dangerfield to Youri Tielemans, Çağlar Söyüncü and Jamie Vardy.

Since winning the Premier League title three years ago, it’s different. I no longer have to explain who Leicester City are and where this city lies in relation to London.

People now know who we are and eagerly ask questions. I feel a genuine excitement for the start of the season, one I’ve not felt since we had Muzzy Izzett, Emile Heskey and Matt Elliott in the side.

It's a young exciting team, and despite the loss of Harry Maguire, we have two full internationals waiting to take his place.

In every position we have young internationals, the likes of Ben Chilwell, James Maddison and Wilfred Ndidi, and they're playing alongside genuine quality, experienced pros such as Jonny Evans and Kasper Schmeichel. You cannot help but get excited.

Back to the cold morning, it’s now 1am and, although disappointed we didn’t make the break through, I lie back in bed contemplating the new formation.

I eventually get some sleep and struggle through my Monday, safe in the knowledge I’ll be back on the sofa with my favourite Leicester City mug in hand next week.

Three games into the season and we sit fourth in the league. Prior to the season beginning, I would have taken five points from the first three games.

Although after the second half at Chelsea, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed we didn’t take all three points.

It's a sign of how far we have come as a team. It doesn’t seem five minutes ago, we were visiting Scunthorpe and Southend, now we're almost disappointed with a point at Stamford Bridge.

Our back-four looks as good as anything outside the top-two, our midfield is young, quick and exciting and, in Vardy we know we have goals.

If we can find some consistency with our youngsters, I see no reason why I won’t be waking up the family on a regular basis, as we march towards Europe.