The Apologies Topic.

[davieG]

 

In July of last year I may have written an article suggesting that the Italian was likely to get Leicester City relegated from the Premier League

 

 Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri lifts the Premier League trophy. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters

Marcus Christenson

@m_christenson

 

Sunday 15 May 2016 11.02 BST

No one likes to be wrong. It is much nicer to be right. In life, however, it is not possible to be right all the time. We all try our best but there are times when things go horribly wrong.

I should know. In July last year I sat down to write an article about Claudio Ranieri. The 63-year-old had just been appointed the new manager of Leicester City and I decided, in the capacity of being the football editor at the Guardian, that I was the right person to write that piece.

 

I made that decision based on the following: I have lived and worked as a journalist in Italy and have followed Ranieri’s career fairly closely since his early days in management. I also made sure that I spoke to several people in Greece, where Ranieri’s last job before replacing Nigel Pearson at Leicester, had ended in disaster with the team losing against the Faroe Islands and the manager getting sacked.

It was quite clear to me that this was a huge gamble by Leicester and that it was unlikely to end well. And I was hardly the only one to be sceptical. Gary Lineker, the former Leicester striker and now Match of the Day presenter, tweeted “Claudio Ranieri? Really?” and followed it up with by saying: “Claudio Ranieri is clearly experienced, but this is an uninspired choice by Leicester. It’s amazing how the same old names keep getting a go on the managerial merry-go-round.”

I started my article by explaining what had gone wrong in Greece (which was several things) before moving on to talk about the rest of his long managerial career, pointing out that he had never won a league title in any country and nor had he stayed at any club for more than two seasons since being charge at Chelsea at the beginning of the 2000s.

I threw in some light-hearted “lines”, such as the fact that he was the manager in charge of Juventus when they signed Christian Poulsen (not really a Juventus kind of player) and proclaimed that the appointment was “baffling”.

I added: “In some ways, it seems as if the Leicester owners went looking for the anti-Nigel Pearson. Ranieri is not going to call a journalist an ostrich. He is not going to throttle a player during a match. He is not going to tell a supporter to ‘**** off and die’, no matter how bad the abuse gets.”

 

 Claudio Ranieri instructs his players during Greece’s defeat by the Faroe Islands, the Italian’s last game in charge of the Euro 2004 winners. Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

Rather pleased with myself – thinking that I was giving the readers a good insight to the man and the manager – I also put a headline on the piece, which read: “Claudio Ranieri: the anti-Pearson … and the wrong man for Leicester City?”

I did not think much more of the piece until a few months later when Leicester were top of the league and showing all the signs of being capable of staying there.

After a while, the tweets started to appear from people pointing out that I may not have called this one right. As the season wore on, these tweets became more and more frequent, and they have been sent to me after every Leicester win since the turn of the year.

At some point in February I decided to go back and look at the piece again. It made for uncomfortable reading. I had said that describing his spell in charge of Greece as “poor” would be an understatement. I wrote that 11 years after being given the nickname “Tinkerman” because he changed his starting XI so often when in charge of Chelsea, he was still an incorrigible “Tinkerman”.

It gets worse. “Few will back him to succeed but one thing is for sure: he will conduct himself in an honourable and humble way, as he always has done,” the articles said. “If Leicester wanted someone nice, they’ve got him. If they wanted someone to keep them in the Premier League, then they may have gone for the wrong guy.”

Ouch. Reading it back again I was faced with a couple of uncomfortable questions, the key one being “who do you think you are, writing such an snobbish piece about a dignified man and a good manager?”

 In defence of Nicklas Bendtner

Marcus Christenson

 

 

Read more

The second question was a bit easier to answer. Was this as bad as the “In defence of Nicklas Bendtner” article I wrote a couple of years ago? (The answer is “no”, by the way, few things come close to an error of judgment of that scale).

I would like to point out a few things though. I did get – as a very kind colleague pointed out – 50% of that last paragraph right. He clearly is a wonderful human being and when Paolo Bandini spoke to several of his former players recently one thing stood out: the incredible affection they still feel for this gentle 64-year-old.

All in all, though, there is no point defending the indefensible: I could not have got it more wrong.

 

 

At the start of this piece I said that no one likes to be wrong. Well, I was wrong about that too. I’ve enjoyed every minute of being embarrassingly wrong this season. Leicester is the best story that could have happened to football in this country, their triumph giving hope to all of us who want to start a season dreaming that something unthinkable might happen.

So thank you Leicester and thank you Claudio, it’s been quite wonderful.

• Marcus Christenson is the football editor at the Guardian. He no longer considers himself an expert on Claudio Ranieri

 

 

 

What he wrote

 

Claudio Ranieri: the anti-Pearson … and the wrong man for Leicester City?

The Italian had a dreadful time as manager of Greece and, even though his CV is reasonable, he has not lasted more than two years in a job since Chelsea

 

 The Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri watches his new team train for the first time at their pre-season camp in Spielfeld, Austria. Photograph: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images

Marcus Christenson

@m_christenson

 

 

The last time Claudio Ranieri was in charge of a football team, his employer felt the need to come out to apologise and take “full responsibility” for “the most unfortunate choice of coach”. Ranieri’s Greece lost 1-0 at home to Faroe Islands, prompting the Hellenic Football Federation’s president, Giorgos Sarris, to sack the Italian and talk about how his decision to appoint him in the first place had “resulted in such a poor image of the national team being put before the fans”.

Poor is perhaps an understatement in the circumstances. Greece, who had for 13 years been a bastion of consistency, hard work and defensive solidity – first for nine years under Otto Rehhagel and then a further four under Fernando Santos – fell apart at an alarming rate.

Just before Ranieri, who was appointed as Leicester City’s manager on Monday, took over the Greek national team in July 2014, they had been a penalty shootout (against Costa Rica) away from reaching the World Cup quarter-finals. Four months later, they were last in their Euro 2016 qualifying group, having picked up one point from four games against Romania, Finland (two) and the Faroe Islands. The Greek FA had no other option than to sack Ranieri, four depressing months into his €1.6m, two-year contract.

Claudio Ranieri appointed as new Leicester City manager

 

 

Read more

The list of what went wrong is long. Apart from the results, there was also a feeling in Greece that Ranieri failed to connect with the players – and with the people. The fact that he did not live in Greece probably did not help.

And then there was the tinkering. Eleven years after being given the nickname “The Tinkerman” for his constant chopping and changing while in charge of Chelsea, the thing that drove most Greeks to despair was the, well, constant chopping and changing.

Under Rehhagel and Santos, the Greeks knew what they were getting. Often 4-4-2, sometimes 4-3-3, on occasions 5-3-2, but always a tactically sound performance with the players aware of what they were doing. Under Ranieri they looked confused.

Apart from the demoralising defeat against the Faroes, there was particular consternation over the 4-2-4 formation chosen for the home defeat against Northern Ireland. The two holding midfielders (well, the only midfielders) were Giannis Maniatis and Panagiotis Tachtsidis and they are not even known for their defensive work.

So in November Ranieri was gone, having been paid €800,000 in a severance deal. He has not worked since and the news on Monday that he had been given a three-year deal at Leicester to replace Nigel Pearson was greeted with no little mirth in Greece. One can only assume that the Greek FA, and in particular one Mr Sarris, was not on Ranieri’s list of references when Leicester came calling. The Leicester City owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, clearly decided that one blip was allowed on an otherwise fairly impressive CV.

Ranieri has had seven jobs since leaving Chelsea in 2004, when he was replaced by José Mourinho after four years in the role. It is easy to forget now but the Italian took Chelsea to the last four of the Champions League in his last season, with the chaotic 5-3 aggregate defeat to Monaco one of the reasons he was sacked by Roman Abramovich.

After Chelsea he managed Valencia, Parma, Juventus, Roma, Internazionale and Monaco before landing the Greece job. His return to Valencia, where he had been the manager between 1997-99, was a failure and he did not even last a full season, signing four Italians and being criticised for not playing Pablo Aimar.

His stint at Parma, on the other hand, was a huge success and he kept them up against all odds in 2007. He then joined Juventus just as they returned from their spell in Serie B following the match-fixing scandal. He took Juve to third in his first campaign, mainly thanks to getting the most out of Alessandro Del Piero, who turned 33 during that season.

However, his second season at Juventus was a huge disappointment, with the manager using a very defensive 4-4-2 for large spells of the season. They again finished third in the league but were eliminated by Chelsea in the Champions League and Ranieri’s signings were deemed a failure with the fans feeling that players such as Jorge Andrade, Amauri, Tiago and, above all, Christian Poulsen were not worthy of wearing the Juve shirt.

Roma were a similar story: a hugely successful first season, when they came close to winning the league but in the end lost out to Mourinho’s Inter, followed by an implosion and Ranieri’s dismissal in his second term. He lasted only six months at Inter despite a promising start and was sacked, somewhat harshly, by Monaco after two largely successful seasons.

All in all, Ranieri’s CV is not bad but two things stand out: first of all the fact that his most successful stints came at the start of this coaching career and, second, that he has failed to hold a job for more than two seasons since leaving Stamford Bridge 11 years ago. This is what makes the Leicester decision so baffling.

In some ways, it seems as if the Leicester owners went looking for the anti-Nigel Pearson. Ranieri is not going to call a journalist an ostrich. He is not going to throttle a player during a match. He is not going to tell a supporter to “**** off and die”, no matter how bad the abuse gets.

Ranieri is generally considered to be one of the nicest men in football and his long-running feud with Mourinho is a case in point. In August 2008, they became involved in a war of words. One of them came out with his dignity intact, the other didn’t. It started with Ranieri making a comment about “not being like Mourinho: I don’t have to win to be sure of the things I do”.

Mourinho did not hold back. “I am in Italy to work, not to be involved in a war of words,” he said, before being drawn into a war of words. “I want to do well with Inter, the best I possibly can for us and not forget about the work of the others. Ranieri? He is right in what he is saying: I am very demanding of myself and I need to win things to be secure with what I am doing. And because of this I have won a lot of things in my career. He, instead, has the mentality of someone who doesn’t have the need to win anything. He is nearly 70 years old and has won a Super Cup and another small cup. He’s too old to change his mentality.” Ranieri was 57 at the time.

He is 63 now and has suddenly been given the chance to take on Mourinho again. Few will back him to succeed but one thing is for sure: he will conduct himself in an honourable and humble way, as he always has done. If Leicester wanted someone nice, they’ve got him. If they wanted someone to keep them in the Premier League, then they may have gone for the wrong guy.

 

 

[GaelicFox]

I know many lads who were crying beside me last Sunday who thought the same and we're going to cancle season tickets when he was announced

Now they want statues built for Claudio

[foxes_rule1978]

He did get it horribly wrong, but many did... I was in full support of his appointment though as I felt he was harshly treated at some clubs beforehand taking them over at a low point and helping to get them back to were they belong. He was sacked early several times and not allowed to finish the job he started.

[davieG]

I was never that bothered about his apparent failure to win anything which seemed to be most paramount in most critics minds because I never felt like we were destined to win anything any way. all we wanted as far as I was concerned was someone to keep us in the PL. playing moderately attractive football.

[GaelicFox]

I was never that bothered about his apparent failure to win anything which seemed to be most paramount in most critics minds because I never felt like we were destined to win anything any way. all we wanted as far as I was concerned was someone to keep us in the PL. playing moderately attractive football.

I actually thought it was a great appointment and a father figure to calm it all down and finish 17th and happy days

[murphy]

I thought he was another Sven.  I thought he would bring in negative Italian style tactics and completely kill off the momentum gained from the great escape and that he was just here for a last pay day.

 

Never been so happy to be so utterly wrong!

 

At least I wasn't one of those who sang 'F@@@ off Martin O'Neill' at that infamous Sheff Utd game though.

[whetstonefox]

I thought it was a bad appointment but friends and work colleagues who support other teams thought my pessimism was misplaced.

How right they were!

How wrong I was!

[inckley fox]

I didn't have a problem with Ranieri, but felt inclined to criticise the decision to sack Pearson on the grounds that I hadn't heard a good (official) reason for him being sacked. I said back then that either a proper explanation or results would justify the decision, and fully expected that round about now I'd be arguing about the absence of either.

 

But how times change. It hardly matters now whether the decision was fair or not because we all know how right it was.

 

I didn't see that happening back in July, and wouldn't hold it against any pundit or fan who failed to spot it either. We thought there was a rule book in place which has prevented this sort of thing happening since the days when Forest could win a league out of the blue, albeit with a side that cost over two thirds of what the big boys' sides cost (plus they'd broken the transfer record for a keeper that year, had finished 3rd in the top flight within the past seven or eight years, and three other sides had won the league within a year or two of promotion in the preceding 20 years... so don't listen to any Forest fans telling you that their achievement was just as wonderful as ours).

 

It turns out there was no such rule book after all. And a side which costs a tenth of everyone else's can do it too. And I learnt, like some of these writers, that being wrong can be the best thing in the world.

[ozleicester]

sorry about the dinosaur

[Libertine]

I remember so many saying they were dreading this season now after NP left and then also Cambiasso didn't stay on.   As some others mentioned I thought he'd be a bit of a Sven - play some fantastic stuff sometimes but unable to turn it around when things got tough. Completely wrong. 

[Guest Sharpe's Fox]

Never thought we were getting relegated because I believed in the squad we had but was certainly sceptical when Claudio came in, and definitely thought he was going to be Sven Mk. II. Glad to eat my words.

 As some others mentioned I thought he'd be a bit of a Sven - play some fantastic stuff sometimes but unable to turn it around when things got tough. Completely wrong. 

To be fair your point still stands, after a whole season we haven't had a bad run so we don't know if CR will be able to turn it around!

[southfox66]

[The Year Of The Fox]

Yeh, I got it so wrong. Couldn't be happier to admit it either.

I loved Pearson but Ranieri is a class above

[milsey]

Gotta say that I was pleased but never in a million years did I see what has happened happening. His club record isn't as bad as some suggest. Teams have always gone on to do well using the foundations he's laid so I just didn't get it.

Absolute gentleman, wish he was my dad!

[Corky]

I was never that bothered about his apparent failure to win anything which seemed to be most paramount in most critics minds because I never felt like we were destined to win anything any way. all we wanted as far as I was concerned was someone to keep us in the PL. playing moderately attractive football.

 

I agree, it was a bizarre way to look at his appointment. We were looking to improve on last season and if we'd managed to finish 12th with 46 points then he'd have done his job well. He was a safe pair of hands written off for the wrong reasons.

[Chester Dontlie]

 

I for one was glad he replaced NP, but thought Leicester will finish around 12th place at best... Little did I know.

 

This season was truly uplifting for me, it was a blessing to watch even for an armchair supporter like me who's never been to Leicester. Ranieri deserves every statue and title we would want him to have, and more!

 

No matter what next years will bring I believe 2015/16 season will stay with us - and with all football supporters - forever.

 

Now, off to Champions Leage! Dilly ding dilly dong, man!

[Vlad the Fox]

I was genuinely excited when I read a link (from foxes talk) someone had put up with him saying he would be happy to talk to us. Having not really paid much attention to him since leaving Chelsea I googled him, it gave me a tingle that I'd last had when we appointed O'Neill, though I didn't think it would happen. So when he signed I was delighted, and celebrated with a bottle or two of old speckled hen (I was on holiday). I got excited at the prospect of a top six finish then banished it as fanciful dreams but felt comfortable of a relaxing mid table finish.

[Vardinio'sCat]

 One thing is certain, with hindsight.

 

We got Ranieri at his peak, tho no-one knew it at the time. One of the greatest seasons of sporting management ever delivered.

 

Reminds me of that Reagan quote, in a US presidential debate, many moons ago. It was classy of Claudio not to mention his rivals inexperience, and youthful egocentricity.

 

1-0 to the grown ups!

[strider470it]

Comments to the article that started this topic (on the guardian site) were closed long ago. Interesting reading too

[Bob Weasel Fox]

I got it wrong aswell, I thought it was probably the wrong choice at the time but I am so glad I have been proved wrong

What a gentleman he is with a good sense of humour, he is tactically aware and astute and has just pulled off the biggest sporting shock in history in my opinion

Will always be opinionated as most people are but hopefully this season has taught me wherever possible to give things a chance slightly longer than the average football fan

Long live King Claudio

[EnglishOxide]

Can somebody tell me why Claudio's hands are so white in the second photograph? It's freaking me out!

[Livid]

He had pretty much improved the state of any club he had ever been at. My main concern was that we weren't anything like the majority of clubs he had managed. I had nothing against him personally but I just thought it was 50/50 wether it would work out.

Obviously any reservations were massively unfounded.

[David Hankey]

Christenson, the author of the Guardian story is a pillock!!

 

He "may have written", he either did or didn't and presumably as a result of this mealy mouthed apology he did. The bloke hasn't a clue like so many sportwriters and pundits who right up until February this year reckoned Leicester City were going to implode.

 

The fact of the matter is after unbeaten runs of 6, 10, 7 & 12 interspersed with a miserly 3 defeats Leicester City are justifiably kings of the EPL. It's high time the press, pundits and the media in general got over it and accept that we are true Champions in every sense.

[st albans fox]

Beginning to notice some of the pundits covering their backsides re next season. The only people saying we can't finish top 4 should be those at the club trying to control expectations like this season. If we keep the squad together then there is no reason we can't do that. You can only put 11 on the pitch at any one time!

[David Hankey]

Agreeing with Lineker is also "bizarre". Will you be supporting the City in your underpants next season!!