Admit it, who thought Ranieri was a disastrous appointment?

[Fox92]

Who cares. It doesn't matter. People can change their opinions.

 

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing. Sure you can have a go at picking my lottery numbers.

[Gold Coast Fox]

I actually thought he was a very good appointment and had no reason not to trust the owners.

[MPH]

Never thought it would be disastrous but i admit to feeling underwhelmed... but i was the one who started the thread about trusting the owners so i was fully behind him...

[ThaiFox]

Can't say I was thrilled when I learnt of his appointment. As others have already said, and which I agree with, I was looking forward to Pearson being here for a long time. I was proud we were becoming a club with a long term manager and proper building plan. 

 

Of course this is Pearson's team and we've yet to see what happens as new players come in, established NP players leave, and new styles of play are introduced. For now, Ranieri has done a superb job. Tactically he's very astute and I'm amazed how quickly he's picked up the way the P/L works, especially after not managing in England since his Chelsea days.

 

His appointment at the time  was a disappointment though. I, like Lineker, felt he was too old, and we needed a manager more in the Pearson age group. However, when I saw the names banded around I was scared we'd appoint some idiot like Carver, so Ranieri was, at least, a proven manager. I then worried he'd be another Sven and was here for a last big payday. Luckily I've been proven wrong on that point.

 

Now, none of us could be disappointed with his appointment and all of us that were at the time must hold our hands up! I hope he continues to build the club in the right way and as changes of players happen, he gets it right. It's going to be an interesting ride with him here. I just hope we wont be looking at this thread in 18 months time with knives drawn!!

[Countryfox]

I actually thought he was a very good appointment and had no reason not to trust the owners.

That's cus you are in a different time zone and way ahead of us.

[Dickov22]

I don't know if anyone was more negative than me. Sven II is what I thought.

I was drepressed for weeks after we appointed him!

[Soar Fox]

I thought it was a bad appointment. Very happy I'm being proved wrong.

I thought it would be another Sven, where he came in ripped up everything good that we'd built up over the few years and start signing overaged players has been players.

I couldn't have been more wrong, he came in & realised we had a fantastic setup with a good honest bunch of lads and he didn't need to change a lot.

People will compare Pearson & Ranieri but they both deserve a huge amount of credit for the current position we are in. I think Claudio has a lot of respect for the way Pearson has left the state of the club.

[Captain...]

I'm an optimist, so I saw a manager who has lead many teams to the champions league and not just taking over teams already at the top, but getting Juventus and Monaco promoted and to the top 3, turning Chelsea into the established Champions league team they are now. Rescuing Roma from a terrible start to a season and always leaving a club in a better position than when he took over.

I could see a huge number of positives, and there was every chance of him taking this club forwards, but never expected him to be this successful this quickly.

[s11nny]

Guilty

[Soar Fox]

Also a lot of credit should go to the owners. They told us to trust them and they are being proved right.

[The Doctor]

What about Preki?

 

Seriously, what's happened to Preki? He quit to take up a job in england around the time we were looking for a new manager then disappeared off the face of the earth...

[Countryfox]

Guilty

And me.

[Webbo]

Also a lot of credit should go to the owners. They told us to trust them and they are being proved right.

Some of us never doubted them

[baldeagle]

I can actually be smug here as I said at the time to friends etc that I thought he would surprise a few people as he'd got s point to prove . Don't know why just had a gut feeling . But I must admit I didn't think we'd be doing as well as we are

[Donut]

I certainly never saw us being in a relegation scrap. I anticipated a mid table finish and maybe 47 points as a target perhaps.

 

But i didnt think things would be THIS good.

 

Ranieri has pretty much answered every criticism people had of him when he came in. He will tear up the squad and backroom team...... absolutely hasnt. His playing style will be defensive and dull..........absolutely not. He is old, and wont have the drive and enthusiasm to manage us........probably the most enthusiastic and passionate manager since O'Neill. And has given our own youth a chance too with the likes of Dodoo and Chilwell getting first team game time.

 

The guy has a very good club record, and was an impressive coup for the club to bring him in.

 

There was also a LOT of nonsense written about our owners.

 

The fact of the matter is, they are extremely patient, very much have the football side of operations at heart, and give the manager, and US fantastic backing.

[fuchsntf]

Look at my posts...No criticism from me, only on the thoughts of pundits and non believing ,weak fans.

I always said a slight suprise, but deserves a chance and support.

Yes Amazed what a season we are having , but did expect improvement, but more like top 10-12.

One other thing, lets all , every single one of us.....Compliment the owners, on the shrewd choice.

[HighPeakFox]

Somewhere in between.......I was disappointed to lose Pearson, no doubt about it, but a proper look at Don's CV showed a guy who kept doing well at difficult clubs, and I remembered thinking what a dignified guy he was when getting the Spanish Archer at Chelsea.....however, I had no idea if he'd click with us or not. 

 

What a guy.

[Great Boos Up]

Absolutely gutted. I wanted Preki.

[Countesthorpe Fox 1884]

At the time I was more annoyed at the sacking of Pearson and may of lost a bit of respect for the owners in thinking "here we go foreign owners alert" but when we appointed Ranieri the only thing I could do is give him a chance and time. How right I was to give him a chance, couldn't of done anything better.

 

Hats off to Claudio!!!   

[Raw Dykes]

I wasn't pleased when I found out Ranieri was appointed. So glad to be proved so very wrong.

 

I was a big fan of Pearson, and I felt pretty sure that we would be in for a rough season when he was sacked. After seeing how the team fell apart when Pearson's first stint was up, I thought the chances were that the players were playing for him, and probably wouldn't perform to the same level for someone else.

 

When Ranieri was announced, I thought that the owners wanted to try the throw-money-at-it-and-hope-for-the-best approach again and I was pretty sure it was going to be a re-run of the Sven days. A big name manager to attract big name players at big prices and big wages. I still think I might have been right about that. There have been interviews where it was revealed that NP's staff and the players convinced CR to carry on running things the way NP had been before. Fair play to CR for taking their advice if that's true, because I was bracing myself for another expensive failed experiment, but this time with the owners not even having the excuse that it hadn't been attempted yet.

 

OP, I don't think it's fair to say that "Ranieri is the best thing that has happened to us in a long time, apart from being promoted." The last manager was arguably our best ever! NP's done way, way more for the club than CR has so far. I don't want to take anything away from CR, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I think taking a club this size to the top of the Prem, past the season's halfway mark, in this day and age, where we see the same 3 or 4 names at the top every damn season, is an absolutely incredible and perhaps unprecedented achievement, but it will mean very little should we end the season outside the European qualification places. Although, given time, I think he probably will, Ranieri hasn't altered our history books at all yet, whereas NP gave us 2 league titles, PL survival, raised our league position by 31 places, and left us what has turned out to be a PL title-contending squad.

 

I would say NP and CR are light years ahead of the rubbish we've had since MON.

 

Very glad to have CR at the club. It could have easily gone so wrong, and I never dreamt that it could have gone anywhere near this right.

[Jimbo]

I didn't know what to think but I kept it to myself and defended his appointment to others who mocked the appointment. All I had thrown at me (mostly by cov fans because I work in cov) was that he was a failure everywhere he'd been. When I pointed out that he was classed as a failure because of his lack of league titles but managed to finish 2nd with Monaco, roma etc and I'd be more than happy with a 2nd place finish I don't think I actually believed that we'd be in with a shot

[Babylon]

Not about Ranieri, more about the direction the club would take. They have done pretty much what I was asking at the time, they've made the scouting and sports science people Leicester fixtures. Rather than them coming and going with every manager.

The managers can come and go be we keep the same successful setups in place.

[Strokes]

I wasn't happy, I thought we would lose our identity a little. I felt what Pearson had created was unique and the affinity with the players on this journey was something not seen since o'neill days. I wrongly assumed he would erode this but I do think this has a lot to do with the clubs structure, which I hadn't really seen before. Hats off, Ranieri has been absolute class and I wouldn't change him for the anyone in the world now.

[Conscript Fox]

Now, let's face it most thought this was going to turn out a disaster, and it still could, it still could   one swallow does not a summer make, anymore than one half season secures a legacy in this game. 

 

It just seems too good to be happening, to be true, to last. And I'm sure the man who actually decided on him didn't even dream this, or Ranieri either.

 

Lest we forget how their respective & unexpected European campaigns worked out for similar provincial and or unfashionable outfits such as, Bolton, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Hull, Birmingham, Fulham, Leeds .............. Wigan.

 

Does anyone else fear the running before walking cliche here ?   Squad over stretched, club over reaches, topples, tumbles, falls, spirals, into an abyss so all consuming none of us can face getting up in the morning anymore.

 

Is anyone else scared to fully enjoy and embrace this because of the lingering fear in the back of your minds of how horrific the flip side and payback for these moments could yet be ? 

 

Ranieri on BBC twitching and flustered, unable to explain the demise, and tinkering furiously as he seeks answers, to questions beyond his reach.

[hackneyfox]

With all due respect, who cares?

 

Anybody who had that opinion then was entitled to it.  And anybody who has an opinion on Ranieri now (hopefully a completely opposite one) is entitled to it.

So you thought' Ranieri was a disastrous appointment' then.