Player power has to stop

THERE IS arguably nothing more disgusting in football than player power.

What stinks about the sacking of Claudio Ranieri are the reports that players plunged a knife into his back by telling tales to the owner.

You can almost hear them now, ‘Sir, Claudio keeps telling us to pass the ball more. Sir, Claudio keeps telling us to raise our game. Sir, Claudio keeps telling us to do what we are paid to do. It’s just not fair, sir’.

You can almost hear them cackling back in their plush mansions, happy with the work they have done to betray a man who had made them legends. If this does nothing to cause a seismic shift within football and end player power, nothing will.

Jamie Vardy scored 24 league goals last season. He has scored five this term. Why not sack him? Riyad Mahrez lit up the top flight to help Leicester win the title. This season, he has done nothing. Why not sack him? It just doesn’t happen that way, does it?

Remember how disgusting the Chelsea players were last season when they almost refused to play for Jose Mourinho? Eden Hazard’s ‘performances’ – if you can call them that – just months after his wizardry helped Chelsea win the title were, frankly, amateurish.

But did Ranieri not earn the right to be given time to turn Leicester around? Did he not do enough for also-ran players for them not to stab him in the back?

It seems not. That is why football is disliked in so many quarters. It is hard to see just how Leicester will avoid relegation. Now, many will hope they do get relegated. It would serve them right.