20 years ago I was an oddity... now everyone is a tinkerman
RANIERI PROUD TO LEAD WAY IN ROTATION GAME
HE was dubbed the ‘Tinkerman’ because he shuffled the pack every week like a casino croupier.
But Claudio Ranieri is proud he became a standard-bearer for a generation of managers who now rotate their squads as routinely as a washing machine doing the laundry.
And as he clocked on for a likely relegation battle at Watford, he said: “I created the flag. I have the flag and they are all behind me now.”
It is good to have Ranieri back – however long his fourth Premier League assignment lasts.
As conductor of the orchestra who turned Leicester’s 2016 title miracle into one of sport’s sweetest symphonies, the Italian has nothing to prove.
But he was sacked at the King Power – nine months after presiding over a football fairy tale – and his 106-day stopover at Fulham in 2018-19 yielded just three wins in 17 games.
Ranieri has seen the landscape change dramatically since he was at Stamford Bridge and Roman Abramovich became the top-flight’s first billionaire owner in 2003.
Newcastle’s Saudi takeover has jogged his memory of the year at Chelsea when he dubbed himself a “dead-man walking” before giving way to Jose Mourinho, right.
Ranieri said: “Yes, I remember it well. I arrived second behind unbeaten Arsenal, I arrived in the semi-final of the Champions League, and I was sacked.
“That is life and now you tell me Watford change managers a lot? It’s unbelievable. But football has changed so much – there is more velocity. A long time ago a lot of other people told me I was a Tinkerman because I changed so many times the team, the system.
“After 20 years, a lot of managers are tinkermen.”
Ranieri, who turns 70 on Wednesday, is no fan of the proposals for a European Super League – because we already have one – and his Leicester phenomenon proved football’s best stories are written by underdogs.
“I don’t like the Super League,” he scowled.
“The Premier League is a super league. Why do you want a Super League?
“I don’t know if I represent hope [for underdogs].
“I tried to do my best and I’m happy if some people, not only in sport but in life, they can think, ‘If Leicester did this, then why not’? That is very good hope for the people.
“But I think another Leicester could happen in maybe 100 years.
“I don’t think about that any more. The day after we won the title, it was in the past for me. I forgot everything.
“I look always forward. What happens tomorrow, what happens Saturday against Liverpool.
That’s everything for me. All
I think about now is Watford reaching 40 points. I don’t know against whom I can achieve 40 points – there are 33 points more to achieve now, because we have seven so far, but I am ready to fight.”
Do not be fooled by the genial “dilly-ding, dilly-dong” one-liners or the avuncular manager who once promised his Leicester players pizza if they kept a clean sheet at Stoke.
Behind the owlish specs, Ranieri is a battle-hardened survivor now in his 21st different assignment as a head coach or manager, 35 years after his first match in the dugout at Vigor Lamezia, now in Italy’s fifth tier.
He is no soft touch, although he grinned: “If we keep a clean sheet on Saturday, pizza is not enough – I buy dinner.
“Look, after dilly-ding, dilly-dong at Leicester, I never said this again – I don’t know why.
“But I did this also to my little daughter when she was young. Dilly-ding, dilly-dong, it means ‘wake up’.
“Do I need to wake up Watford? Wake up, no. But change philosophy, yes.
“Every manager has a different book, a different philosophy and I want them to bring my spirit, take my spirit – that is very important.
“All the world knows of Liverpool and if you lose to Liverpool, OK, nothing happened.
“But if you work hard, if you fight until the end, if you use 100 per cent of your strength, your stamina, it’s OK.”