Foxes board need to roll the dice for Ranieri replacementment
The bell has tolled for the dilly ding, dilly dong era. Claudio Ranieiri has been sacked as Leicester City manager just nine months after he led the club to the most unlikely Premier League title in history, and the consensus is that the Italian has been hard done by.
Did last season’s fairy- tale feat not earn him the right to see out this campaign? Why did the board so vocally support him just weeks ago? Why wait until after the biggest result in the club’s history – the 2- 1 loss to Sevilla in the Champions League, where Jamie Vardy’s away goal kept their hopes of a debut quarterfinal alive?
These questions are moot. The decision has been made and Leicester City now need a new manager to oversee their attempt to retain their topflight status. Since Ranieri was sacked, the side have dropped into the relegation zone and next up are Liverpool at the King Power on Monday night.
Whether you see Ranieri’s dismissal as a tragedy or a comedy, it is fitting that Craig Shakespeare will be in charge of the next game. Ranieri’s assistant Shakespeare is the new caretaker and may get a crack at the role full time – at least until the end of the season.
He has one opportunity not to fluff his opening lines. If the caretaker can’t get a result against Liverpool then there are others waiting in the wings. Roberto Mancini is the bookmakers’ favorite and he has a point to prove in England. His only previous job in England was with Manchester City: another Italian manager that was let go despite winning the league the season before.
Bobby Manc, as he was known during his time at City, has a connection to Leicester City having played for the club on loan at the climax of his playing days. He heads a slew of former Leicester City players and coaches that have been linked with the vacancy.
Strange that the past is now a factor in who leads Leicester despite the fairy tale of last season not preventing Ranieri’s sacking. Former manager Martin O’Neill is the romantic’s choice, and he’s joined by his former charges Gerry Taggart and Neil Lennon plus Ranieri’s immediate pre- decessor Nigel Pearson.
The next hire represents a real roll of the dice. The Championship beckons if the club get it wrong but they are still in the Champions League. That’s why they should only look to fill it until the end of the season because the summer is the time to think longer term. The last time they hired a manager in the summer everyone questioned the appointment but, despite Ranieri’s sacking, they got that right.