In Summary
SOCCER. Once mocked as the Tinkerman, Claudio Ranieri has been the mastermind behind Leicester’s surprising success in the Premier League this season. The Foxes could win the title by beating Manchester United this weekend.
Claudio Ranieri used to be famous for having new phrases made up about him, none of them flattering. He was the ‘Tinkerman’ who haphazardly rotated his players at Chelsea and moved on to be a ‘Dead Man Walking’ when the club wanted Jose Mourinho.
When Leicester City appointed him last summer, their most famous son Gary Lineker came up with another adjective to describe the decision: ‘Uninspiring’. Another ex-Foxes striker Tony Cottee called it a ‘huge gamble’.
Everyone has backtracked now. Ranieri is no longer a Tinkerman, in fact Leicester’s success has been founded on unchanged teams. He is not a Dead Man Walking, he can name his price to take the club into the Champions League.
And far from being uninspiring, Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez have produced the form of their life for the 64-year-old Italian, whose kindly-uncle routine has enabled Leicester to keep calm throughout the pressure of an unexpected Premier League title race.
For all the undoubted assets of the previous manager Nigel Pearson, there is a big question mark whether he would have been able to keep it together when Tottenham were snapping at their heels. Gamble? Not for those who took 5,000-1 on Leicester being champions.
Ranieri has had a strange kind of managerial career – even he would probably admit that himself. Sixteen jobs over a period of 30 years has seen him take charge of some pretty big outfits – Napoli, Roma, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid – and also suffer humiliations. Losing at home to the Faroe Islands with the Greece national team was high on the Richter scale for embarrassment.
Yet, the Silver Fox has qualities that have come to the fore in spectacular fashion last season. In retrospect, the decision by owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha to bring him to Leicester was genius. First, Ranieri is adaptable. ‘Christopher Columbus’ is how he describes himself in that charming way of his. Having worked in France, Italy, Spain, England and Greece previously, there was little problem settling down in the east Midlands.
Secondly, he was experienced enough to handle a squad who might have been shocked to learn of Pearson’s departure. Instead of coming in and slamming his fist on the table, he gained their trust before making any changes. Yet, the Silver Fox has qualities that have come to the fore in spectacular fashion last season. In retrospect, the decision by owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha to bring him to Leicester was genius.
First, Ranieri is adaptable. ‘Christopher Columbus’ is how he describes himself in that charming way of his. Having worked in France, Italy, Spain, England and Greece previously, there was little problem settling down in the east Midlands. Secondly, he was experienced enough to handle a squad who might have been shocked to learn of Pearson’s departure. Instead of coming in and slamming his fist on the table, he gained their trust before making any changes.
‘Then he gave us some hints, some ideas of his philosophy that made our game even better, more stable. He is Italian, he loves to defend.’ They kicked off with a 4-2 victory against Sunderland and didn’t look back. Unbeaten in their first seven league games, they responded to a 5-2 home defeat by Arsenal by going on another 10-match unbeaten run. The form of champions.
Tactically, Ranieiri has also proved himself more than capable by Premier League standards. In Italy, he will always be considered among the second tier of managers; he is no Giovanni Trapattoni, Arrigo Sacchi or even Fabio Capello and his only major trophies were the Italian Cup with Fiorentina in 1996 and the Copa del Rey at Valencia three years later.
Yet that doesn’t make him a bad or thoughtless manager. It was Ranieri who signed Claude Makelele at Chelsea from Real Madrid and brought the idea of a holding midfielder into the Premier League. ‘My new battery,’ was the manager’s lyrical description of the player, and you knew what he meant.
At Leicester, his biggest and bravest decision has been to make a little-known Frenchman Kante the heartbeat of his team while leaving out Gokhan Inler, a Switzerland international with considerable pedigree having starred for Udinese and Napoli in Serie A. Behind the whimsy, Ranieri is clearly a tougher cookie than you think.
If the first half of the season was all about Vardy’s goals – a Premier League scoring record run of 11 games in a row – the second half has been about clean sheets. Shrewdly, he’s let the Leicester dressing-room run itself. With characters like Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Kasper Schmeichel and Fuchs around, that’s good management because they will bring any rogue elements into line. And he’s been the perfect front man, not getting too excited when Leicester hit the summit, releasing little stories like taking the players out on a team bonding trip to a pizzeria.
Dramatic
After the 4-0 win against Swansea, Ranieri praised his players for winning handsomely without the suspended Vardy. ‘I asked for this kind of performance. Be hungry, be solid, press a lot,’ he said. The players clearly listen to their manager, which is half the battle.
Much has been made of how quickly Leicester City have risen from the bottom of table to the top. If anything, Ranieri’s resurgence has been even more dramatic.
Less than 18 months ago, his career looked over, sacked by Greece in November 2014 after the Faroes humiliation. ‘A most unfortunate choice of coach,’ said the Greek FA in their statement. But like Stoke City’s Peter Coates, who appointed Mark Hughes for his overall managerial record rather than his last job at QPR, Leicester’s bosses decided Ranieri was worth more than his Greek tragedy. How right they were. He’s been a very fortunate choice of coach for Leicester City.
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