BAG TO Outfoxed for Mancini & De Boer
Bassett: All the players have gone backwards apart from Schmeichel and Drinkwater
BLACK CLAUDIO OVER LEICESTER: OWNER AND ‘Recruitment this season has been an unmitigated disaster’
Thursday. Pearson led Leicester to Premier League safety in 2015, putting together a remarkable run which saw them win seven of their final nine games.
He was fired in the summer of 2015 after a breakdown in his relationship with club chiefs.
Although he is not top of the shortlist, the players, who complained to the club’s owner about Ranieri, would be open to his return to the King Power.
One manager who is high on Leicester’s list is Roberto Mancini, who briefly played for the Foxes in 2001.
Mancini had been harbouring hopes of landing a job back in England, but has now been linked with replacing Vincenzo Montella at AC Milan.
The Italians are seventh in Serie A and Montella is set to pay the price for a poor season. The club’s new Chinese investors believe Mancini can bring back the glory days.
Mancini joined Leicester on loan at the end of his playing career, but was so unhappy in the city that he returned to Italy after a month.
And the ruthless way Leicester’s Thai owners have treated his friend Ranieri has also raised doubts.
Another candidate to rule himself out is Frank de Boer. The former Inter Milan boss, has no interest in replacing Ranieri.
“There is nil percent chance that Frank is coming to Leicester,” said his agent, Guido Albers.
“I have heard the rumours, but Frank is not going to be the manager of Leicester City. I repeat, one hundred percent.’’
The Italian, who was sacked on Thursday, made a brief visit to Belvoir Drive to say his farewells to his titlewinners and club staff.
Ranieri’s visit came as Leicester’s former director of football Dave Bassett launched a scathing attack on the club’s ‘big-time Charlie’ players and claimed they had gone backwards.
Bassett accused the title-winners of letting down Ranieri who said on Friday that his “dream died” after he was fired having led the Foxes to an historic Premier League title.
Leicester’s form has nosedived this season and they sit third from bottom with players unhappy with the 65-year-old Italian’s team selection and tactics.
And a number of them held meetings with owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha which eventually led to the manager’s dismissal.
“I don’t speak with anybody, just to say thank you to the fans. They are fantastic. Thank you,” Ranieri said as he drove away yesterday.
On how he was feeling, he said: “I feel good now, because what we achieved in Leicester – I hope it will happen again, but it will be very difficult.”
When asked if it had been an emotional meeting with his players, he insisted it had been “normal”.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel said: “As everybody knows he’s a classy guy. He came in and said his piece to the players, thanked us for our efforts and last season and said goodbye.
“You know Claudio, he’s an emotional guy. I wouldn’t say there was tears but you could hear obviously that it hurt him and it hurts the players that we haven’t performed well enough to make this carry on.”
While Ranieri decribed his meeting as “normal” the form of the players this season has been anything but, and Bassett says the former boss has been let down badly by the owners and players who think they are better than they are.
In a double-barrelled attack, Bassett said: “There is no honour in the game any more. People expect a quick fix and we don’t seem to have owners who understand football. After what he’s done for them he deserves to see through the year, even if the team are relegated. But they have panicked.
“Apart from Kasper Schmeichel, and possibly Danny Drinkwater, every single one of these players has gone backwards.”
Despite success in the Champions League, it has been a struggle this season and the Foxes head to Anfield to play Liverpool tomorrow night without a League win in 2017.
It is that alarming slide which convinced Srivaddhanaprabha to sack the popular Italian just a fortnight after assuring him his job was safe – and immediately after a decent Champions League show in Seville.
There has been talk of player revolt, with suggestions that senior members whined about Ranieri. An unimpressed Bassett added: “I remember George Graham saying directors should direct and keep quiet, managers should manage and players play.
“Players are quick to blame the manager. A manager could fall out with a couple of players and they moan and it creates a situation.”
One disaster zone this season has been the failure to replace N’golo Kante and Bassett thinks this has contributed to the slide.
He said: “The recruitment has been an unmitigated disaster and that is something the owners should certainly look at.”
But he says there is enough time to come out of the tailspin.
“Swansea and Hull have improved but there’s no reason Leicester can’t get out of this.”