Time To Say Goodbye - why sacking Claudio was the right call

[Freeman's Wharfer]

I've been reading a lot about how the decision to sack Cluadio was the wrong one. A lot of pundits and supporters of other clubs slating our club and our owners.

 

Here's why I think the decision, albeit a sad one, was the correct call.

 

http://theposthorngallop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/time-to-say-goodbye_25.html

 

Arms aloft, a wave, 2,500 buoyant fans singing his name, he turns and he is gone. As Claudio Ranieri strode across the turf at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan no one in that away end, where a defeat had never felt more like victory, would have envisaged that this was Claudio’s last stand. That as planes from Seville shakily touched ground in the chaos of Storm Doris another storm was brewing; a media storm that would follow the news that Ranieri had been sacked.

 

The decision to end the Ranieri era, a glorious and unprecedented era, was the correct one. As Leicester City fans we have had to become used to our club being global news. Of everyone wanting a piece of the big Leicester pizza pie yet only ever knowing half the recipe.

 

As the unlikeliest of footballing stories began to unfold in late 2016, football pundits and experts scrambled and bumbled - at a loss to try and explain how this unbelievable team was doing what it was. For once, eyes that had previously been fixed on United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City were looking the wrong way. It wouldn't last, Vardy and Mahrez would dry up, they hadn't played anyone good yet. Not one of them could accurately summarise the strength of that remarkable team.

 

Those same eyes have been caught diverted once more. They haven't seen the visible confusion of the players as Shinji Okazaki replaced Robert Huth and our final throw of the dice was to change our right back against Chelsea. They haven't travelled to Stamford Bridge, Anfield and Old Trafford to see us take a pasting because Claudio persisted with a 442 formation which just didn't work without Kante. And they haven't seen the persistence with the likes of Mahrez, Huth and Morgan who just haven't delivered this season whilst the likes of Damarai Gray and Daniel Amartey have sat, in-form, frustrated on the bench.

 

The success of last season was built, in large part, on an incredible team spirit. Eleven players working together for each other with the whole being greater than the sum of their parts in the season of their lives. It was the kind of spirit that pulled them through on a cold Wednesday night in January at White Hart Lane for a crucial 1-0 win (several of which would follow in the run-in) and in the early part of the season had them dubbed ‘Comeback Kings’ after resurrections against Villa, Southampton and Stoke City.

 

That spirit has ebbed away. Where players previously clapped good intentions they now point out mistakes. Riyad Mahrez, provider in chief last year, no longer seems to want to pass. The selfless work of Jamie Vardy for the team has been replaced by the kind of conserving energy, pointing and staying in shape that would never have been coached into him at Stocksbridge Park Steels or Halifax.

 

These are the things that we, the fans that follow this team home and away, see where others don’t. The reality is that Leicester City have been dire for months. No goals in 7 league games, no away win in the league all season and defeats against the likes of Sunderland, Swansea, Burnley and Hull. That’s without mentioning a defeat to 10-man League One side Millwall in the cup.

 

A big thing I have read is that Claudio should have been given more time, but what was going to change? He’d changed the personnel. He’d tinkered the formation. He’d not recruited in vital positions in the transfer window. He’d tried the carrot and the stick multiple times apiece to no avail.

 

This was not the Leicester City of their first season in the Premier League who were bottom of the league but competing in matches, scoring goals and running through brick walls for their manager Nigel Pearson. I have rarely seen so many abject performances over a prolonged period of time and questions would have been asked a lot earlier in the season were it not for progress from a poor Champions League group (not one of those teams was better than lower half Premier League quality) and for allowing a somewhat inevitable hangover from the party of our lives. Claudio had been given his time.

 

The accountability which keeps standards high had to come at some point.

 

It’s all very well Michael Owen or Jamie Carragher wanting him to see out the season. The ‘Twittersphere’, awash with fans of other clubs who feel it’s their business or their right to judge this decision or to slate our club, seemed to think Ranieri had earned the right to take us to a level lower than that we were at when Claudio first arrived. I assume that those people would be at Bristol City away on a Tuesday night with us in The Championship next season? That they were so entitled to an opinion on the merits of Mark De Vries or Elvis Hammond? That they put money in a bucket to save the club when it was in administration?

 

For the casual observer, relegation for Leicester would have simply been a shame.

 

Maybe Claudio’s biggest crime was to be too nice. The outpouring of emotion about his sacking has been akin to the disgust at an elderly grandad being pushed over in the street. He always stirred the emotions Ranieri and there’s no doubting his honour, his dignity and his humility. There is, however, plenty of reason to doubt that the players still felt this warmth towards him with rumours of changed training schedules, bewilderment at team selections and falling out with popular members of backroom staff.

 

Rightly or wrongly, Claudio had lost some of the players. Those players need to question what they have offered this season and in an ideal world they would be more accountable but you can’t sack 23 players and the way football works the manager should be culpable for poor results. Leicester's results (despite a ‘good defeat’ in Seville where, even then, they were poor for 70 minutes) showed no signs of change and they were in a downward spiral.

 

Ranieri will be a legend forever. Our most successful manager ever and a man who told us to dream and then delivered something beyond even our wildest dreams. Some of the days of our lives are thanks to Claudio but those days couldn't be a free pass to undo the good work of those who had gone before. He leaves with both his legacy and that of his predecessors intact.

 

As Andrea Bocelli sang on the pitch prior to our crowning glory against Everton last season, it was time to say goodbye.

 

 

[Ted Maul]

Very well written. Sums up my thoughts on the matter perfectly.

[Leicester Southwest]

Well said

[Tally Ho Foxes]

Excellent piece and I wholeheartedly agree.

[Max Wall]

37 minutes ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

I've been reading a lot about how the decision to sack Cluadio was the wrong one. A lot of pundits and supporters of other clubs slating our club and our owners.

 

Here's why I think the decision, albeit a sad one, was the correct call.

 

http://theposthorngallop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/time-to-say-goodbye_25.html

 

Arms aloft, a wave, 2,500 buoyant fans singing his name, he turns and he is gone. As Claudio Ranieri strode across the turf at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan no one in that away end, where a defeat had never felt more like victory, would have envisaged that this was Claudio’s last stand. That as planes from Seville shakily touched ground in the chaos of Storm Doris another storm was brewing; a media storm that would follow the news that Ranieri had been sacked.

 

The decision to end the Ranieri era, a glorious and unprecedented era, was the correct one. As Leicester City fans we have had to become used to our club being global news. Of everyone wanting a piece of the big Leicester pizza pie yet only ever knowing half the recipe.

 

As the unlikeliest of footballing stories began to unfold in late 2016, football pundits and experts scrambled and bumbled - at a loss to try and explain how this unbelievable team was doing what it was. For once, eyes that had previously been fixed on United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City were looking the wrong way. It wouldn't last, Vardy and Mahrez would dry up, they hadn't played anyone good yet. Not one of them could accurately summarise the strength of that remarkable team.

 

Those same eyes have been caught diverted once more. They haven't seen the visible confusion of the players as Shinji Okazaki replaced Robert Huth and our final throw of the dice was to change our right back against Chelsea. They haven't travelled to Stamford Bridge, Anfield and Old Trafford to see us take a pasting because Claudio persisted with a 442 formation which just didn't work without Kante. And they haven't seen the persistence with the likes of Mahrez, Huth and Morgan who just haven't delivered this season whilst the likes of Damarai Gray and Daniel Amartey have sat, in-form, frustrated on the bench.

 

The success of last season was built, in large part, on an incredible team spirit. Eleven players working together for each other with the whole being greater than the sum of their parts in the season of their lives. It was the kind of spirit that pulled them through on a cold Wednesday night in January at White Hart Lane for a crucial 1-0 win (several of which would follow in the run-in) and in the early part of the season had them dubbed ‘Comeback Kings’ after resurrections against Villa, Southampton and Stoke City.

 

That spirit has ebbed away. Where players previously clapped good intentions they now point out mistakes. Riyad Mahrez, provider in chief last year, no longer seems to want to pass. The selfless work of Jamie Vardy for the team has been replaced by the kind of conserving energy, pointing and staying in shape that would never have been coached into him at Stocksbridge Park Steels or Halifax.

 

These are the things that we, the fans that follow this team home and away, see where others don’t. The reality is that Leicester City have been dire for months. No goals in 7 league games, no away win in the league all season and defeats against the likes of Sunderland, Swansea, Burnley and Hull. That’s without mentioning a defeat to 10-man League One side Millwall in the cup.

 

A big thing I have read is that Claudio should have been given more time, but what was going to change? He’d changed the personnel. He’d tinkered the formation. He’d not recruited in vital positions in the transfer window. He’d tried the carrot and the stick multiple times apiece to no avail.

 

This was not the Leicester City of their first season in the Premier League who were bottom of the league but competing in matches, scoring goals and running through brick walls for their manager Nigel Pearson. I have rarely seen so many abject performances over a prolonged period of time and questions would have been asked a lot earlier in the season were it not for progress from a poor Champions League group (not one of those teams was better than lower half Premier League quality) and for allowing a somewhat inevitable hangover from the party of our lives. Claudio had been given his time.

 

The accountability which keeps standards high had to come at some point.

 

It’s all very well Michael Owen or Jamie Carragher wanting him to see out the season. The ‘Twittersphere’, awash with fans of other clubs who feel it’s their business or their right to judge this decision or to slate our club, seemed to think Ranieri had earned the right to take us to a level lower than that we were at when Claudio first arrived. I assume that those people would be at Bristol City away on a Tuesday night with us in The Championship next season? That they were so entitled to an opinion on the merits of Mark De Vries or Elvis Hammond? That they put money in a bucket to save the club when it was in administration?

 

For the casual observer, relegation for Leicester would have simply been a shame.

 

Maybe Claudio’s biggest crime was to be too nice. The outpouring of emotion about his sacking has been akin to the disgust at an elderly grandad being pushed over in the street. He always stirred the emotions Ranieri and there’s no doubting his honour, his dignity and his humility. There is, however, plenty of reason to doubt that the players still felt this warmth towards him with rumours of changed training schedules, bewilderment at team selections and falling out with popular members of backroom staff.

 

Rightly or wrongly, Claudio had lost some of the players. Those players need to question what they have offered this season and in an ideal world they would be more accountable but you can’t sack 23 players and the way football works the manager should be culpable for poor results. Leicester's results (despite a ‘good defeat’ in Seville where, even then, they were poor for 70 minutes) showed no signs of change and they were in a downward spiral.

 

Ranieri will be a legend forever. Our most successful manager ever and a man who told us to dream and then delivered something beyond even our wildest dreams. Some of the days of our lives are thanks to Claudio but those days couldn't be a free pass to undo the good work of those who had gone before. He leaves with both his legacy and that of his predecessors intact.

 

As Andrea Bocelli sang on the pitch prior to our crowning glory against Everton last season, it was time to say goodbye.

 

 

Great post. Well written

My only other comment is that quite a few posters were asking questions really early in the season. I didn't see it that early myself or I was refusing to on the back of last season, though it became more obvious around the end of the year to me.

The last line is the one I'm sure most would agree with now.

 

 

[Moksky]

superb, sums up how I currently feel. I wanted to give him the benefit of the transfer window and results and prefromancs during January, it didnt happen it got worse.

[Bob Hazels shorts]

quality

[Tuna]

Best post on foxestalk i've seen in years.

 

Very well written and sums up my thoughts entirely. 

 

Bravo! 

[Arkie Bennett]

Great post. I think many of us saw warning signs early on, even at Hull, but chose to err on the side of continuing to live the dream, in the hope that improvement would come. Time hasn't diminished Ranieri's place in my heart, but in my head I became more certain over the last few months that he isn't able to change our course. I'm comfortable with the owners' decision to look for a new manager (please, please, please not Pardew) to try to arrest the decline, although I wish the club could have made Ranieri's departure more dignified. I don't care what outsiders think. They have bought into our fairy story, but haven't grasped our reality of shockingly bad performances, odd team selections, players clearly not pushing themselves and ineffective tinkering. We shouldn't have to accept relegation just because of last season's success.

[Horibbly Wrong]

Can you please convert this to an open letter ?

[Stinkenzo]

This bloke perfectly sums up my thoughts when I get asked why i'm not surprised that Ranieri was sacked

 

https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=nnlm_DPVpng

[Max Wall]

Last year we were 10 points clear. This season, if 2017 carried on the way it's started, we may end the season 10 points adrift.

They had no choice.

 

[Hammo]

Brilliant post. An eloquent voice of reason.

 

I wish this could be shoved under the noses of every lazy pundit and journalist who has jumped on the "how could they?; Leicester City are the devil incarnate" bandwagon.

 

Please try to get it published in a national newspaper.

[totbl]

Great article, sums it up perfectly. Love this bit below.

 

It’s all very well Michael Owen or Jamie Carragher wanting him to see out the season. The ‘Twittersphere’, awash with fans of other clubs who feel it’s their business or their right to judge this decision or to slate our club, seemed to think Ranieri had earned the right to take us to a level lower than that we were at when Claudio first arrived. I assume that those people would be at Bristol City away on a Tuesday night with us in The Championship next season? That they were so entitled to an opinion on the merits of Mark De Vries or Elvis Hammond? That they put money in a bucket to save the club when it was in administration?

[Raw Dykes]

4 hours ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

(post)

 

 

Excellent post!

 

I wholeheartedly agree. I wish that the man who guided the team to such heights last season could have done enough to keep us competitive in the league and kept his job, but it wasn't to be. This season has been a total horror show so far. Something had to be done.

 

Since about December, I lost all faith in Ranieri. I saw absolutely no sign that he was capable of even keeping this club in the division, never mind a safe mid-table finish, which I think should have been the very least we could have expected. We are the champions, after all, and have invested £80m. The situation we find ourselves in is not in the least bit acceptable to me.

 

Great point about the outsiders looking in and shaking their heads. What gives them the right? Have they sat through the sorry performances we've consistently been served up this season? I doubt it. Sod the lot of them.

[Guesty]

One of the best things I've ever read on here. 

[norwichfox]

Top notch post Freeman's Wharfer, thank for that.

[UPinCarolina]

That last line hit me in the feelings.

[bald reynard]

4 hours ago, Freeman's Wharfer said:

I've been reading a lot about how the decision to sack Cluadio was the wrong one. A lot of pundits and supporters of other clubs slating our club and our owners.

 

Here's why I think the decision, albeit a sad one, was the correct call.

 

http://theposthorngallop.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/time-to-say-goodbye_25.html

 

Maybe Claudio’s biggest crime was to be too nice. The outpouring of emotion about his sacking has been akin to the disgust at an elderly grandad being pushed over in the street. He always stirred the emotions Ranieri and there’s no doubting his honour, his dignity and his humility. There is, however, plenty of reason to doubt that the players still felt this warmth towards him with rumours of changed training schedules, bewilderment at team selections and falling out with popular members of backroom staff.

 

Rightly or wrongly, Claudio had lost some of the players. Those players need to question what they have offered this season and in an ideal world they would be more accountable but you can’t sack 23 players and the way football works the manager should be culpable for poor results. Leicester's results (despite a ‘good defeat’ in Seville where, even then, they were poor for 70 minutes) showed no signs of change and they were in a downward spiral.

 

Ranieri will be a legend forever. Our most successful manager ever and a man who told us to dream and then delivered something beyond even our wildest dreams. Some of the days of our lives are thanks to Claudio but those days couldn't be a free pass to undo the good work of those who had gone before. He leaves with both his legacy and that of his predecessors intact.

 

As Andrea Bocelli sang on the pitch prior to our crowning glory against Everton last season, it was time to say goodbye.

 

 

Wholeheartedly agree !!

[bald reynard]

22 minutes ago, Guesty said:

One of the best things I've ever read on here. 

 

11 minutes ago, norwichfox said:

Top notch post Freeman's Wharfer, thank for that.

 

2 hours ago, Tuna said:

Best post on foxestalk i've seen in years.

 

Very well written and sums up my thoughts entirely. 

 

Bravo! 

Yes !!

[Halifax Fox]

Excellent piece. 

[Dan LCFC]

Very nicely done. Agree with the lot of it.

[Freeman's Wharfer]

4 hours ago, Horibbly Wrong said:

Can you please convert this to an open letter ?

Haha! Addressed to whom though... so many options!

[davieG]

Why Leicester were right to sack Claudio Ranieri

Martyn Cooke February 26, 2017 Leicester City

Time Inc

Leicester City have sacked manager Claudio Ranieri just nine months after the Italian guided The Foxes to a seemingly implausible Premier League title triumph.

But the only real surprise is that there is any surprise at all regarding his departure from the club.

Since being crowned champions of England in May Leicester have stumbled along from one mistake to the next and have been spiralling towards relegation since the turn of the year. The club’s transfer policy, negative attitude, poor performances, demotivated players and bizarre tactical decisions have been continuing issues that Ranieri, among others, must shoulder the responsibility for.

The Italian was coveted with praise during the summer, and rightly so. Leading The Foxes to the Premier League title will be one of the great underdog sporting success stories that will forever be remembered both in Leicester and across English football. But he must also accept the criticism for his team’s performance this campaign – which will go down in the history books as one of the timidest and pathetic title-defensives in sporting history.

Embed from Getty Images

 

Setting the tone

The warning signs were there for all to see during the summer.

The first mistake was that Ranieri set a negative tone. He publicly admitted that he had set his Leicester City team the primary target of reaching 40 points in the Premier League and achieving safety.

The Premier League title holders, the best team in English football the previous season, were hoping to avoid relegation.

By setting the bar so outstandingly low Ranieri was sending a clear message to his players – “Last season was just a fluke. Do not expect to defend your title.” In one fell swoop, the best team in England surrendered their title before a ball was even kicked. Is it any wonder that the players have performed so poorly when their manager publically undermined their success the previous year? It sent out all the wrong messages.

The second mistake was that Leicester decided to sell their best player, N’Golo Kante, to Chelsea. The Frenchman’s energy, enthusiasm, and technical play had been a key component of their success the previous season – and they sold him to a title rival. Why? The 25-year-old was tied down to a long-term contract and the club were under absolutely no financial pressure to sell. Ranieri needed to play hardball and keep hold of his dynamic midfielder but instead chose to take the easy option and cash in.

As a comparison, can you imagine Sir Alex Ferguson responding to a title triumph by telling his squad that they needed to reach 40 points and then selling his best player to a title rival?

Leicester City were the best team in England going into the new campaign and yet Ranieri was behaving like his players would be in a relegation fight. Negativity from the manager breeds negativity within the playing squad.

Embed from Getty Images

 

A timid title defence

Football is a business that is all about the here-and-now.

The success of the previous year is irrelevant – it is all about your team’s current form and performances. This is something that Ranieri has found out the hard way just as Jose Mourinho did in 2016.

Looking at Leicester’s results so far this season it would be difficult for any observer to put forward a reasonable case for the Italian to keep his job without making reference to the previous campaign. Progress in the Champions League has helped to cover the cracks but one run in Europe would be little compensation or comfort should the club be put back a decade through relegation.  The statistics are difficult to comprehend and the performances have been hard to stomach.

The reigning English champions have lost 14 fixtures and have conceded 43 goals in the Premier League so far this season. They have won just five games and sit one point above the relegation zone. More importantly, their form showed no sign of improving under the guidance of Ranieri. Since the turn of the year in the top-flight The Foxes have picked up just one point, have lost their last five fixtures and have not scored a single goal.

These are damning statistics that will result in any manager being sacked. Performances have been extremely poor and Ranieri has shown no sign of being able to halt the slide towards the relegation zone. There was only ever going to be one eventual outcome.

However, the Italian has not helped himself. Leicester’s success last season came from continuity in team selection and tactics but this campaign Ranieri has insisted on chopping and changing the starting line-up and deploying various different formations.

“If it isn’t broke don’t try and fix it”.

There was no need to change a winning formula.

Embed from Getty Images

 

Poor timing

So, in reality, Claudio Ranieri’s sacking comes as no surprise – Leicester were only heading in one direction under the Italian’s leadership this season – but the timing of his departure is somewhat bizarre.

In mid-week Leicester demonstrated a little more spirit and quality in Spain when they travelled to Sevilla in the Champions League. The Foxes may have lost the game but the performance was much-improved and Jamie Vardy’s away goal provides them with a genuine opportunity to turn the tie around in the reverse leg in early March. Also, the transfer window is now closed, so any new manager will have to work with the current group of players and will not be able to bring in any new additions.

The club has made the right decision but at the wrong time. Releasing Ranieri from his duties is a step that should have been taken in January.

So what now?

So Claudio Ranieri’s reign as Leicester City manager is officially over.

The club and its supporters will undoubtedly be forever thankful for the contribution that the Italian made in guiding The Foxes to the Premier League title, but there is little argument that his departure is the correct decision.

The Leicester hierarchy now need to be swift and decisive. A new manager needs to be brought in as soon as possible but there is little room for error – the wrong appointment would be disastrous at this stage – but there is little doubt that the club needs fresh energy, impetus, ideas, and input. Roberto Mancini and Frank de Boer have both been highlighted as early favourites and it will be interesting to see what type of character The Foxes elect to opt for.

Congratulations to Claudio Ranieri for winning the Premier League. But you have no excuse for Leicester City’s timid title defence and slide towards the relegation zone.

Featured Image: All Rights Reserved Alex Hannam (Alex Hannam)

[Wymsey]

Getting quite emotional hearing this again...:(