CLAUDIO Ranieri was sacked last night (at the time of writing).
It is too obvious to state that this represents a disappointing state of affairs. That the figure head for as great an achievement as there has been in British sport should find that his team no longer require his services is beyond sad. Ranieri is simply the greatest leader in the history of Leicester City Football Club. While it remains voguish to build statues to the game’s heroes, that mob should be rushing to put down a deposit on a lump of quality granite toute-suite.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the Leicester City chairman, was right to sack Ranieri.
The criticism of him and his board is irrational. It is irrationality disguised as compassion, which makes it irksome. Most of the voices crying loudest about the perceived injustice done to Claudio came from beyond Leicester. Voices that can afford to view a football club and it’s people as a curio, as a sometime charming distraction. The Leicester City story is beloved of those only passingly interested. Their improbable league title win of 2016 a frozen moment in time. Those loveable Corinthians. They reminded us that sport remains, beyond all else, about triumph of will.
Unfreeze the frozen frame. Release the paused image. Scroll right nine months to today. Leicester City have been put back where God found them. They are in their rightful place, near the bottom of the top. On the cusp of relegation once more. Hierarchical order has been restored.
But you haven’t really been watching. Not really anyway. And why should you? It’s only Leicester.
They have been watching, though. The Leicester nation has been watching. They have seen their ‘moment’ rendered precisely that — a blink, a blip, a hiccup. Did it really happen? Were all those metaphors about living a dream literal after all? Was any of it real?
You’ve trudged with Edmund Hillary to the top of Mount Everest. He’s got you there, his leadership, guile, know-how. You owe it all to him. On the way down, though, he seems to be directing you into a ravine. To almost certain death. You know he still thinks he’s doing the right thing, but every turn on the descent seems to only increase the sense of impending danger. The abyss has clearly opened up in front if you. If you don’t do something drastic you are going to be swallowed whole by it.
If Leicester lose to Liverpool on Monday night, and the weekend’s other fixtures aren’t kind to them, they are likely mired in a bottom two trench that will take some climbing out of. The Leicester board were right to sack Claudio because their jobs are to achieve the best set of outcomes for Leicester City FC. They don’t exist to honour Ranieri in perpetuity. They, and all Leicester, may be grateful to the man until they draw their last breaths, but they are bound to love the entity that is the football club, that little bit more.
Ranieri knows that the Leicester board were right to sack him. He knows this because he understands the extents and limitations of a manager’s powers. Claudio oozes experience. He has been round all the blocks. Ten times. He is the man most aware that when the fairy dust that makes players, a crowd, a football club have faith, be committed to the manager’s method, when that magic is absented, then there is nothing left.
The tales Claudio must have told those Leicester boys last season to raise them so high. So fanciful so beyond belief, so extravagant. And yet, they chose to believe. They elected to view Ranieri as the Shamen. His word as lore. His word above all others. He convinced them to walk through fire.
Claudio had those boys follow him across that tightrope that that French guy spanned across the Twin Towers, way back. He rid them of their fear, kept their heads up, and focused eyes only on the other side. His magic over their minds. They were champions of all England. They had achieved the seemingly impossible. They just needed to walk back across that taut wire to safety and a place among the football’s comfortable establishment.
And then they looked down.
And after they’d looked down Claudio knew that they were doomed. That they would fall and that he wouldn’t be able to catch them.
Leicester City’s board have simply gambled that a new voice might — just might — correct their perilously off-kilter team. Might re-orientate them just before they plummet. It’s a long shot, but the alternative wasn’t worth thinking about.
This drama is played out with depressing regularity in football. Liverpool FC — in various ownership guises — have had to make these calls, for better and sometimes for worse. That it was the Tom Hicks and George Gillett era, and the Roy Hodgson was the answer to a question, doesn’t change the fact that Rafa Benitez had hit a wall at Liverpool in 2010, just 12 months after taking an incredible Manchester United side as close to the wire as it often gets. Rafa was rightly handed a new contract in early 2009. It was right that he and the club parted just 12 months later.
Then there was Kenny — he had saved the club from a Hodgson-inspired meltdown by May of 2011, but despite bringing a trophy back to Anfield had presided over a depressing league campaign. His ‘executioners’, the then new Bostonian owners, knew less about the game than Kenny had forgotten in an afternoon, but they recognised — and it isn’t hard to see how — when a manager was no longer able to have the influence over a dressing room he once seemed to so effortlessly enjoy.
Freshest in the memory is the culling of Brendan Rodgers in October 2015. Brendan, the man who has come closer than any to rendering the league title back to Anfield since it was last won in 1990. His reward for that near legendary achievement was to be permitted 10 games worth of grace, into the 2015/16 season, before being removed from office.
The Ranieri decision is more binary than all of the examples above. In all of these instances, cases could and were made that patience might be its own reward. The price of making incorrect alternative decisions may have been a lower league placing, by a position or two. For Leicester City, failing to act was sanctioning the club being relegated.
In what realm was/is it OK for a board to sit back and allow that to happen to a club when there is always a different course that can be set? It can obviously fail just as fundamentally but surely the greatest dereliction of duty by a club’s custodians is to sit on their hands in such times of strife.
The Leicester people simply could not afford to stick. Twisting was their only option. If I were a fan of that club I would hope that they did have a new man already lined up. To have sacked Ranieri and deemed him worse than leaving the ship rudderless would seem a more than curious action. Unless that Leicester team had reached the unlikely point where they couldn’t even look their once beloved leader in the eye, even a diminished Ranieri would be better than a void.
From an Liverpool point of view this no-man’s-land between the sacking and the appointment of the new guy is to be exploited. Regardless of the rectitude of removing Ranieri, his leaving will cast the club into a phase of mourning. There will be talk of a defiant showing ‘for the boss’, but confusion and insecurity will abound.
Jürgen Klopp was stealing Liverpool for the task of taking on a rejuvenated version of Leicester City. The one that felt it had briefly rediscovered its soul in the wake of a potentially crucial away goal against Sevilla in the Champions League in midweek. From a Reds’ point of view, it is to be hoped that whatever long-term purpose Ranieri’s sacking may serve for Leicester, that in the immediate here and now it is only a good thing for Liverpool.
Klopp saw the rise in his own stock briefly checked during a fallow January, but the win over Tottenham more than calmed nerves, it restored total confidence in the manager. The run-in starts here, Jürgen is telling his players. Face only the front and we’ll see what’s behind us when the clock stops in May, he has told them.
It’s what we all need and want to hear. Let’s raise a glass to Claudio Ranieri and an immortal achievement. Let’s wish him and even Leicester well. But let’s win. Let’s leave regretting behind for the season.
The carnivorous Reds to face off against the Foxes: Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lallana; Coutinho, Mane, Firmino.
Kick-Off: 8pm live on Sky Sports 1
Last Match: Liverpool 4 Leicester City 1
Referee: Michael Oliver
Odds: Leicester City 5-1, Draw 16-5, Liverpool 4-6
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
No offence Rob but that is just a load of self indulgent tosh. Your argument can be summed up in one sentence – “He got sacked as he was failing and it was the right thing to do”, the rest is long winded polemic.
Why you brought Rafa into it is ridiculous. Rafa didn’t hit a brick wall, he was shafted by a snake called Purslow after trying to mount a challenge with one arm tied behind his back by warring, tight fisted, corrupt owners.
To be fair Frankie, that’s a fair amount of offence right there.
I agree with some of this Rob, but not all. For example, is it easier to “lose the dressing room” when so many of the players seem to have gone ‘big time Charlie’ literally from the moment they collected their medals? I hate agreeing with Jose, but he’s got a point. Mahrez hasn’t thrown a leg. Vardy is less Hollywood and more straight-to-video. It’s all very convenient to bleat about training methods and tactical swings when you’ve failed, repeatedly, to emulate what you did just a season ago.
All that said, because I do like and admire Claudio, I had a slight qualm about us winning Monday and pushing him closer to the edge. But that’s sorted now and I hope we beat them 10-nil.
Articles like this serve well to remind me why I cancelled my subscription to TAW.
What a tragic piece of crap.
If you really feel that cancelling your subscription makes you a tragic piece of crap, why not re-subscribe?
Thanks for your feedback David. Much appreciated.
Responses like this serve well to remind me why I am enamored with and a subscriber to TAW. What a triumphant piece of explication in a world bereft of (apparently even angered by, David) nuanced response.
Ranieri’s sacking was far from some rational and well thought out option as depicted here. It was almost certainly at the whim of their new owners, who by the way didn’t even have a replacement lined up… genius that.
Don’t know what Gutmann’s been smoking, but no professionally run club reacts like that. That’s got the stench of rash owner interference all over it.
And as for Rafa hitting the wall… that’s bullsh*t.
You can thank our departed owners and their many broken promises that cultivated a toxic atmosphere within the club for both Manager and fans alike.
Their actions hardly provided the environment that allows a Manager to concentrate on the job at hand. And then replacing Benitez with Hodgson was not a rational or professional decision to advance the club. It was owner interference designed to seize control and negate their perceived interference. How did that work out for us again…
Sorry if I’m being overly direct here Rob, but I’m seriously struggling to understand what compelled you to write this article?
And why the questionable comparison/references to Rafa? Whats the motivation in doing that? Call me a simpleton, but what exactly is your underlying point here? I’m not seeing it.
I don’t see what the fuss is all about Leicester was a survival first team that went on and won the league with Ranieri against massive odds in the cold day of light nothing has changed really and it’s back to survival which normally at this point leads to a change in manager to salvage the situation sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but that does not mean because he led them to the title so irrespective of threat of relegation he should be allowed to carry on? no I don’t think so, there is a business to be managed here whether people like it or not the dream is over and they are back to reality and the HARSH reality is last season was a fluke.
All the journos and pro’s coming out and saying the sacking is pathetic are the very same ones who said Ranieri will be gone before the league starts when he was appointed.
I don’t know the truth but what I read he was messing with tactics and personnel and that is typical Tinker Man Ranieri, well done Ranieri for winning the league and for the memories.
Pls. Steel? Steal?
Actually I think you will find that the tinker man is a nickname, not an actual reflection of his career.
Just read Carragher’s piece in the DM… he nailed it.
David,
1) Rafa gets one line in a 1500 word piece. He gets the same air space as Kenny and Brendan. In all but the very next line I acknowledge there are reasonable different takes on all of their situations. I acknowledge Rafa’s achievement with the 2009 team in equal measure. That he had gone as far as he could is my opinion, and not really a particularly left field one.
2) I also acknowledge that I wouldn’t support the sacking of Ranieri if they literally had no replacement lined up. I’m pretty clear about that.
3) My overall point is that the vast majority of opinion I’m reading out there seems to be focusing on Ranieri, and the debt owed to him, rather than the considerations of a football club. It would not be the first time in the history of football that a club’s saviour went on to become a problem for them. Tell me, did you (or the media in general) howl with outrage when Chelsea sacked title winning Mourinho last season ? multiple title winning Mourinho, I should stress.
We all (maybe grudgingly) loved Leicester’s story and Ranieri’s part in it. None of that means he gets to keep them in the top division.
David,
I’ve also now read Jamie Carragher’s piece. His argument is that Leicester should accept relegation, because that is what they are really about. That their debt to Ranieri is more important than their survival in the top flight.
I get this argument. I’ll buy that, because I support Liverpool. If I was a Leicester fan though, it would make my blood boil.
Rob im sorry mate but i tuned out about a quarter of the way through.Why do you have to write an article like a Shakespeare play. Keep it simple and get your point across. I actually had to go back and re-read lines over again to get your point.
What Carra has written is basically what I wrote yester night except the bit about player power and some other bits where he calls last season a freak and I call it a fluke anyway that is not why I’m here its the bit about taking winning the league and being relegated the following season, I will not take that that in my mind is not what Liverpool stands for.
Good day folks
Redderthan Red,
Totally agree.
When you remove emotion from the decision then it makes pure sense.
Football is a game where the fans can look forward and back but the club and those responsible for its well being (for want of a better word) can’t, they have to look forward and navigate any perceived obstacles.
It always happens when we are due to play the team next though doesn’t it?
They’ve been playing like a bag of shite for months.
And then we rock up, new manager bounce…. Its always us.
Schmeichel will get injured and the reserve goalie turns into Lev fucking Yashin for 90 mins.
They will bring a youth team player on with 30 to go… He will summon the spirit of Stanley Matthews for half an hour and win man of the match.
Their new signings, who have been absolutely shite all season suddenly “bed in” for our game.
That’s Liverpool that!!
The one saving grace….. We have our first eleven out.
We will know in the first ten minutes if we are winning this game. In my opinion.
I enjoyed reading it Rob, as always fella.
Fuck the haters.
Fuck em.
Sorry Rob, but your opinion stinks. I’m not arsed about Leicester but Gary Lineker has more than a ‘passing interest’ in them and he wasn’t best pleased.
You brought up 2010 there, I wasn’t happy with how Benitez was treated as it was and I’d hazard a guess you weren’t either. Now imagine everything happens as it did with Hodgson etc if 08/09 had ended with the title.
I think this is a well-written article and I disagree. The looking down analogy is good but when it comes to that on Hillary, they have done the equivalent of leaving him on the mountainside. Having given the owners something beyond their wildest dreams. I think Ranieri was entitled to expect the owners to be a bit more creative than sack him or not. Surely he could have been given some help, which as you suggest, he probably realised he needed.
If it really was player power, then give them to the wombat. He can recreate utopia as 17th and a league cup quarter-final.
As a paying subscriber why wasn’t my comment made public today lads?. I didnt say anything offensive or harsh at all!
Sorry Rob you are utterly wrong and you have contradicted yourself in the piece. Clearly we are all entitled to our irrelevant opinions because simply none of what we think matters in Leicester, Tom’s nailed it saying Gary Linekar nailed it and Carra nailed it too. I’ve seen and heard every Leicester fan give the thumbs up and agreeing that selling their sole and accepting instant relegation (if it comes to pass) as a sacrifice for the honour and glory of becoming Champions of the EPL. The probability of Ranieri avoiding relegation with his Champions surely was far higher than it will be with a caretaker manager, purely based on the logic of the same Tiltle winning players, bar 1, who believed in him last season must surely do the same as soon as the reality of the relegation battle smacks them in the face and they finally awaken from their slumber and accept that they are indeed amidst relegation fight. He clearly hadnt lost the dressing room as if that was evident then that situation would have been untenable and would have warranted any sideways move for the victorious manager who achieved the unachievable, however without the merciless fall from grace as this No, it’s my irrelevant opinion that if these players can’t do it for Claudio then they’re not going to rise to the challenge for any other wouldbe caretaker. I believe Leicester by ousting Ranieri have already sealed their own fait and should be preparing for playing next season in a lower league
Wow, I’m shocked at some of the comments here.
Rob takes the time to write a preview before every game, and has to find a creative way to do so. (I can’t imagine how hard that is.)
If you don’t like the article, don’t read it. If you disagree, make your point. But firing off criticism or rage is ridiculous.
I thought the article was excellent. I’ve read it twice. Made me think. I shook my head once or twice, yes, but nodded most the time. (Instinctively shook my head at the Rafa comment, as I always seem to do–still burns that one–but then thought, “yep, he did hit a wall … a solid steel wall built by Gillet, Hicks and Purslow, etc.).
I admired the time and thought put into the article, Rob. Great writing as always (so, so much better than the crud served up by the mainstream media) and as always, it framed my thoughts for the game. Kudos.
You’ve got it wrong on this one Rob. I work with Leicester fan and he is incandescent with rage on the sacking. Even on the national football phone in’s I have actually heard less Leicester fans asking for Rainieri to be sacked compared to so called Liverpool fans asking the same for Klopp just because we drew or lost a game recently. I believe that this will go down with the majority of people as the most ridiculous sackings ever in the top flight
Last year Leicester played out of their skins. A huge achievement for mostly a bunch of journeyman average players. Did the manager do a good biology of guiding them along and keeping the right focus… Probably.
This year the average team of journeymen reverted to the norm and have a relegation battle on their hands.
The fact that Ranieri knows this and decided to focus on the Champions League, (where they have had relative success), points again to him doing something right.
Was it correct to fire him,… We’ll never know. My personal view is that he should have been given to the end of the season to pull them from the fire, but I’m not a billionaire owner.
If he really did “lose the dressing room” and therefore the players are not giving 100%, then shame on them for hurtling their own club to the relegation zone just to spite the manager.
Dale,
Thanks for your kind comments.
Rob, Edmund Hillary achieved something that most people can only write about, much less achieve, but you’ve made a poor example as reference. This is football not a life and death matter given the odds that EH and Tenzing endured.
Kenny D, based on FSG’s model, was more like a stop gap or it seemed, as opposed to the chosen Messiah-type you assume he was or that he lost the dressing room? I always felt he tried to turn back the clock with his approach but it wasn’t working out in his favor.
Btw, I disagree – Rafa did not hit any walls, but had to contend with the dubious ownership of G&H and their minions.
I think Leicester should have allowed Rainieri to at least continue Champions League run, as they managed an away goal. The players are assholes for their poor professionalism. And I don’t think they would have been relegated. There’s enough quality in the side to be guided by Ranieri to stay afloat. I understand that football is a business but from that POV it’s doesn’t come across as a good business decision at this time of their run of games.
Lastly just because Leicester has lost their manager doesn’t mean much for LFC tomorrow. Just depends on which teams decide to turn up. Just hope it’s not another Swansea vs LFC from last month.
Wow Rob you do divide opinion!! Well for whats it worth thank you for taking the time to write something that I have read whilst at work and enjoyed.
I don’t get the negative comments, but then again I am reasonably intelligent well rounded individual who appreciates reading or listening to peoples views on subject affecting Liverpool.
Once again thanks your effort and talent is very much appreciated.
Firstly, thanks Rob for always writing evocative and thought-provoking match previews. They are always well-written, well-thought through and enjoyable.
This particular piece is again an excellent piece of writing. I particularly liked the imaginative Hillary and high wire analogies.
I may not agree with it all 100% – and that still doesn’t take away from the quality of the writing. I’m with Gary on this one. I simply do not understand why having a different opinion generates such anger and vitriol. It’s this kind of tribal, false binary, “I’m right, you’re wrong”, “we won, you lost” that has grown from the fringes of football and other sports discussion, infiltrating and poisoning ultimately destroying rational political discourse in both this country and USA.
If you agree or disagree with Rob, that’s fine. We all have, and are entitled to, different opinions. Just lay off the over-the-top anger and vitriol.
Keep on with the great writing, Rob!
Thanks to the nice comments people. Rest of yas can get to fuck. Only messing, it’s all about opinions and that. You are wrong though.
Still waiting to hear a counter argument that just focuses on what Leicester need to do to avoid relegation . All I’m hearing is ‘fuck it, they’re not worthy of the top division anyway. More important to be kind to Claudio’.
Oh, and heads going at the mention of Rafa. I should’ve known better.
“Still waiting to hear a counter argument that just focuses on what Leicester need to do to avoid relegation. All I’m hearing is ‘fuck it, they’re not worthy of the top division anyway. More important to be kind to Claudio’.”
No need Rob, Leicester provided you and the rest of us with enough answers tonight.
As I write this, we are getting fucking battered by Leicester. Without a manager, and they are battering us. Long balls. The usual.
We are shit. Utter shit