Memories will live on for Ranieri
SUPER: Balogun fires home and, above, Andone celebrates EMOTIONAL: Ranieri pays his respects to his former chairman outside the King Power Stadium CLAUDIO Ranieri has claimed the Leicester “fairy tale” ended with the death of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, but the memories live on.
The former Foxes manager will tonight face his old club for the first time since their shock title triumph in 2016 – and the October helicopter crash which claimed the life of the club’s popular Thai chairman.
New Fulham coach Ranieri said: “Of course it will be special.
“We have spoken a lot about the fairy tale. Now with the chairman Vichai dead, the fairy tale is finished.
“The memories remain. That achievement. I am very sad for what happened. Then we have to continue in our life.
“Do fairy tales happen twice?
It is difficult. Maybe in 100 years, not now.”
Ranieri, who faced his other former English club Chelsea in his second game back in the Premier League, said: “It is not a match like all the others. Every time I face one of my ex-teams – and now there are lots – there is always more emotion.
“Football for me is emotion. And Leicester is the club that gifted me a dream. It will be a very strange moment, a very emotional moment, but that’s OK.
“I wanted to come back to the Premier League. After, if you come back, you have to play against Chelsea, Leicester.
“It’s good for me because I continue to coach and I live with emotion.”
Ranieri forged a strong bond with players such as Wes Morgan, Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel, who remain the heartbeat of the Leicester side.
But his new club Fulham are now bottom
FULHAM LEICESTER
Vafter losing eight of their last nine games.
“Of course they are still my boys but now I have other boys,” he said. “That’s normal.
“In every team I loved my players like sons. I want to improve every one of them.
“When you achieve something in the world because that was something not only in England, everybody grows closer together.
“It will be a good moment for sure, very emotional, and then we have to win. For us, every match is very difficult and very important.”
Current Leicester manager Claude Puel, who guided the club to ninth last term, says that Ranieri’s title success has made life tough for his successors.
The Frenchman said: “It was not normal to win the title like this. You need circumstances to align, come together at the same time.
“Afterwards it’s difficult for people because they think it’s easy to win like that.
“It’s very difficult to manage that situation – to give the fans the same feeling.
“No-one is prepared for what follows. A lot of people think it’s easy to perform and win the title, to play at the top of the table.
“But this title was early in the development of the club. After the title it was difficult for all people to manage that.”
Leicester are on a six-game unbeaten run, and Puel said: “When we have a positive spiral in the team with success, it breeds success. We want to maintain this feeling and connection.”