After his side had demolished Manchester City last weekend, manager Claudio Ranieri was asked what he thought of the bookmakers making Leicester City favourites for the Premier League title. The amiable Italian responded: “I don’t believe the bookmakers. At the beginning of the season they said I would be the first to be sacked.”
We may see if the bookmakers are on the right track tomorrow, when the top four clubs play one another on a crucial day in the Premier League. Leicester face probably their biggest test of the season when they visit the Emirates to take on Arsenal, while second-placed Tottenham Hotspur have an equally demanding assignment away to Man City.
The affable Ranieri, who resembles more an accountant than a football manager, believes one reason his team are performing so well is that there are no prima donnas. “Everyone feels they are participating, so playing badly means betraying the others.”
He certainly comes across as one of the most likeable gaffers in football. Of course it helps when you are doing well, but even in his days at Chelsea when things did not always go so well, he maintained his dignity when under pressure from the media.
Ranieri’s appointment last July, replacing Nigel Pearson at the Thai-owned club, didn’t exactly have Leicester fans dancing in the streets. He had just been sacked by Greece following the team’s humiliating home defeat at the hands of the Faroe Islands. Former Leicester and England star Gary Lineker called him an “uninspiring choice”.
The Italian didn’t really look the type of character to relish what most Leicester fans and pundits thought would be another relegation battle. Little did they know that the mild-mannered boss would be leading the Foxes in a battle for the title.
Ranieri has been around the blocks, Leicester being his 14th managerial appointment, seven of the clubs being Italian.
When he joined Chelsea in September 2000 he spoke little English but was helped in the training sessions by the English-speaking Italian players. On becoming Chelsea manager he announced: “I am a lovely man as long as everyone does what I say.” The amicable Italian is tougher than he looks. Joe Cole once commented: “Ranieri is always smiling and making jokes. But when he’s serious, he’s deadly serious.”
He was quickly dubbed by the English press as “the Tinkerman” for his penchant for tinkering with the squad when many thought it was unnecessary. The fact that he lasted at Stamford Bridge for four years suggested he was reasonably successful, the Blues finishing sixth, sixth, fourth and second during his tenure.
The Chelsea fans initially didn’t quite know what to make of him, but generally took to his pleasant, if sometimes quirky, personality. They also liked the way he displayed his passion on the touchline, something current Man U boss Louis van Gaal might take note of.
After one match, in which he shouted himself hoarse, Ranieri said: “I was like Pavarotti out there.”
However, from the moment Roman Abramovich took over in 2003, Ranieri sensed his days were numbered. “Abramovich knows nothing about football,” Ranieri commented. “I already have his sword sticking into me…Even if I win the European Cup I’ll be sacked.”
There had been so much speculation in the press about the pending demise of Ranieri at Chelsea, that when the axe finally fell, it was something of a relief. At one stage, Ranieri said in his charmingly eccentric English, “I’m a walking dead man.”
His fate was probably sealed after a wretched display by Chelsea against 10-man Monaco in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on April 20, 2004.
It was a miserable night all round for Chelsea. They were going along okay at 1-1 in the second half when midfielder Claude Makelele made an embarrassingly blatant dive that fooled the referee into sending a Monaco player off.
As often happens when a team suffers an injustice, the French side started playing like demons and went on to a well-deserved 3-1 victory. Ranieri did not help matters by making two questionable substitutions. The Tinkerman had out-tinkered himself.
“Blundering Chelsea Fall Apart” read the headline in The Guardian newspaper. Giles Smith in The Times, didn’t mince words either: “In the aftermath, the general verdict was that Ranieri had gone mad.”
A month later, Ranieri was gone, with a certain Jose Mourinho waiting in the wings. The incoming Portuguese coach gave his predecessor send-off in typical Jose fashion: “I could say, ‘What has he ever won?’ But I won’t.”
There weren’t too many tears shed for Ranieri, however. In addition to a “golden handshake”, he walked straight into a top job at Valencia, vacated by Rafa Benitez. So Ranieri moved from the runners-up of the Premier League to the champions of Spain, hardly a career in decline.
Interestingly, Raneiri does not seem too bothered by the media. As his time at Chelsea neared its end, when asked what he did to relax, he replied “I read the English newspapers.” There are not many managers who would say that.
Asked if he felt the pressure of the English media he commented: “I have managed in Italy and it’s much, much worse there. In this country the journalists want to kill you some of the time. In Italy, it’s all of the time.”
The majority of uncommitted English football fans would love to see the Tinkerman lead Leicester to the most unlikely triumph ever in the Premier League. But the bloodhounds from Manchester and London are waiting to pounce if the Foxes show any signs of faltering.