Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri says he's curious to see how his side responds next season, and has predicted more losses for the Foxes in 2016-17.
Ranieri's men improbably won the Premier League last season despite 5,000-1 preseason odds. The title means they also qualified for the Champions League, which will add more difficult games to the schedule.
And speaking exclusively to ESPN FC on Monday, the Italian boss says he's eager to see how his defending champs will respond to the challenges -- and increased defeats -- in the upcoming campaign.
"Now this season of course, I'm very curious, first of all, to see how we react," Ranieri said. "Last season was a fairytale. OK, now it's back, I don't think anymore [how to be] the champions, blah, blah, blah.
"Now our focus is the next match, the next match is Manchester United [for the] Community Shield, very important match for us. And then starts the Premier League.
"I want to see how we react, what happens, because I'm sure there will be more defeats. It's normal. Then we start the Champions League. It's a very good and difficult matches, no?
"It's not so difficult for the [body], you spend a lot of energy but no, it's here; the mental energy you go to spend, and I want to see how they react.
Leicester have signed Nice midfielder Nampalys Mendy and CSKA Moscow striker Ahmed Musa this summer as the squad's workload will increase for next year, while star N'Golo Kante has most notably exited the club this transfer window.
Ranieri, once known as the Tinker-man, is no stranger to having to integrate new player into his squad. In fact, the former Chelsea manager explained how the nickname came about during his first season under maga-rich owner owner Roman Abramovich, who would develop a reputation for his spending and buying habits.
"I was a tinker-man because last season, my last experience in Chelsea, the big change was Ken Bates to Roman Abramovich, no?," Ranieri, who managed the club during Abramovich's takeover in 2003, said.
"And he, if I can remember well, in July we started to buy new players and started the Premier League and started the Champions League and I continued to buy players. I had to change. It's not normal.
"I loved, a long time ago, to change also the system. Now a lot of managers change the system, change the players, and then now everyone is a tinker-man but I won the flag. Nobody can take my flag now."
Asked if Leicester's title had yet sunk in, the former Juventus manager revealed that he's still processing the remarkable achievement.
"No, of course, no. At the beginning our goal was to be safe. Slowly, the team got confidence, it was a very, very amazing performance, match by match, day by day, they work so hard and we improved a lot," he said.
"I think one of our keys was to be consistent during all the season. Believe in yourself without thinking -- winning, losing, drawing, it wasn't important. It was important to fight every match."
Leicester secured positive results throughout the beginning stages of the season, but for Ranieri a Premier League title didn't appear a reality until December.
Ranieri said: "I said this team has a fantastic character. It was difficult to say 'OK we win the Premier League,' but we try to do something special, yes."
As the season continued, Ranieri could see something special in his unfashioned side -- especially after a hard-fought defeat at the Emirates in February.
"When we lost against Arsenal, if I remember well it was the beginning of February more or less, and we lost in 95 minutes 10 v 11, and I thought 'Oh, if Arsenal need 95 minutes to beat us and we played with 10 men, oh it's not bad. We lost, but we are very strong to beat," he said of the 2-1 loss.
"And then there was something the players understood, and I also I gave to them a one-week holiday because they played so well. I think that was good for them. They recharged the batteries and when they came back to the training ground they believed more and more and more. It was good."
Though his team would eventually storm to the first top-flight league title in club history, Ranieri acknowledged there were special factors at play.
"I don't know. I think there was something special this year, no?," Ranieri said. "The big teams don't make a fantastic job. We start at the beginning, if you remember, well, there were two, three matches we were losing two-nil, and we go back 3-2, 2-2, 1-0, 1-1 and that was important to take confidence to believe in ourselves.
"In November, we say 'Oh OK we are at a good point.' In December, I don't remember, 40 points more or less, and said 'OK we're safe.'"
Despite that safety, Ranieri said he charged his players to keep working for more. And achievement by achievement, they did.
"Now I didn't want to see my players slow down. For me, it was important, I talk to my players: 'Train how you play Saturday. I don't want during the training session, play easy without effort, no, no, no, no. I want the maximum every time, every time.'
"I always ask a little more, a little more. The first goal was 40 points, be safe. After, OK, now it's December, but in May, what happened? And OK, I say: 'Try to enjoy now.' And we enjoy a lot. And after say 'Try to achieve the [Europa League qualification]. And when we got [that], OK, 'Try to get to the [qualification] of Champions League, and we achieve the [qualification] of Champions League.
"And then I say, 'OK now, try to win the title. Just step by step, step by step, believe, believe. And fight with the fight spirit, thinking the next match is the last match of the season. In or out, in or out. That was our leitmotif during all the season."