The day the game lost its soul
These snakes have betrayed Ranieri, the man who delivered a miracle
THEY must have someone absolutely exceptional lined up. A miracle worker, really. A man who, in ways we cannot begin to understand even now, pulled off the greatest single achievement in the history of football leadership.
No, they can’t have, because that individual is Claudio Ranieri, and Leicester have sacked him.
It is hard to imagine that a more pathetic, dispiriting, thoroughly depressing decision has ever been made. Forget the happy clappers, the free rounds of Singha beer. When it mattered, Leicester’s owners were found wanting.
They were snakes, claiming to support Ranieri only to betray him now – midway through a Champions League tie in which the spirit of last season was forcibly evoked, some may say for the first time in this campaign. Yes, Leicester lost. But by scoring an away goal against a superior Sevilla side, a 2-1 defeat almost felt like victory. It stirred memories of a Leicester triumph against all odds and gave hope that a corner may at last have been turned.
And now this. Ranieri gone. A painful decision, said the owners. Not painful enough, sadly.
Ranieri was never afforded the respect he deserved. Not by his players, who drenched him in public as he was about to speak to the world’s media, and not by his owners, who seemed more interested in parading pictures of Thai royalty on the day of his crowning glory.
It should have been Ranieri’s image up there that afternoon, just as it should have been Ranieri who was given the chance to complete this epic journey, whether it ended in safety or relegation to the Championship.
Sean Dyche took Burnley down, but the club knew what they had in him, and kept faith. They were rewarded with a return to the Premier League and, so far, a season that has exceeded all expectations. And Ranieri was not due that? He was not due the opportunity to right the wrongs of this campaign, no matter where it ended? He has not even been given a year from the most remarkable, illogical title win – from an achievement that took the name of Leicester City into parts of the world that did not know it existed.
Muhammad Ali, it was said, could look out of an aeroplane window over any continent in the knowledge everyone on the ground below knew who he was. And that was true of Leicester last May. Improbably famous, even now. The outsiders against which all others will be judged, forever more.
Leicester changed the sporting landscape, changed our expectations, even changed the odds at the bookmakers. No one is quoted at 5 000-1 any more. Even this season, they continue to confound. Breezing into the Champions League knockout round and now a 1-0 home win over Sevilla away from the quarter-finals in this, their supposed moment of great catastrophe.
Imagine what their fans would have considered Ranieri’s due before this happened. What loyalty they would have considered sufficient for a man who could deliver the Premier League title and then a Champions League run. Five years? Ten? A lifetime? In the end, Ranieri did not get nine months.
And this is a decision that could cost millions. Not millions in terms of finance, which is the prime consideration for Ranieri’s employers, obviously; but millions in terms of support. Fans, followers, lovers of football, who may feel this morning that the game is no longer for them; that a sport placing such little value on integrity and humanity, that no longer recognises feats unprecedented, has truly lost its purpose and its soul.
Roman Abramovich sacked Roberto di Matteo months after winning the Champions League. Carlo Ancelotti was gone a year after winning the double in his first season. We were appalled, yes, but we also understood. Chelsea consider themselves a huge club now. They set standards, they make demands. They seek parity with Real Madrid. But this was Leicester. This was a club that nobody – nobody – thought could be England’s champions. Then Ranieri made us reconsider what was possible.
His achievement in managing Leicester to the title remains the greatest of the modern sporting age. Better than Liverpool in Istanbul, Manchester United’s treble, Arsenal’s Invincibles, this year’s Super Bowl and the Miracle in Medinah. Wonderful though they all were, those outcomes were all considered possible. These were good teams, great players, elite performers.
It was different for Leicester last year. Ranieri drew elite quality from mongrels, from journeymen, and at a time when football is ruled by money like never before. He took a club marked for relegation to heights unimagined. And what did it get him? Not even nine months’ grace. Not even the courtesy of being treated honestly, openly, by those who employed him – of being allowed at least to complete the Champions League campaign he delivered.
Leicester were the greatest story football ever told, yet this is its bleakest postscript. The weasel words of the club statement should only harden the sense of disgust around this decision. Leicester may not be the favourites to go down, but after this, it is quite likely they will be the people’s choice. – Daily Mail