‘Clever’ Ranieri using brain to lift Fulham

CLAUDIO RANIERI says he will “tinker clever” to lift Fulham from the bottom of the Premier League to safety.

And if he can “tinker clever” enough, he may escape the wrath of his 99-year-old mother Renata, who Ranieri yesterday revealed used to berate him over his team selection at Chelsea.

“When Damien Duff didn’t play, she would say, ‘Why? Why don’t you put Damien Duff on the pitch?’” said Fulham’s new boss. “Roma was always her team but now it’s Fulham. She doesn’t come to the games – a long time ago she would. “She turned 99 on November 1 but she still loves football.

“She wants to see all the games and if Sky don’t show Fulham on the television in Italy, she will say, ‘Why Claudio?! Tell them’.” Ranieri will sit on the couch next to wife Rosanna tonight to pick his team to face Southampton tomorrow.

“It’s okay if I ignore her because she knows what I am thinking about,” he said. “Maybe I am looking at the television but I don’t know what’s happening. My mind goes and thinks, ‘Okay, against this, this is much better, all the players can link better…’ So what’s this ‘tinkering clever’ all about? “A long time ago, the journalists called me “The Tinkerman” because I changed things a lot,” said the former Chelsea boss.

“But I only changed a lot because it was the last year in Chelsea and we brought the players at the start of the season and continued to buy players.

“I didn’t have a friendly match and then for this reason you say, ‘Oh he changes a lot, changes a lot, changes a lot’.

Important

“That’s why I changed it – with intelligence not just to change. Now I have to choose the first XI and then it is very important not to make big mistakes. For this reason I asked my players to follow me 100 per cent.”

Ranieri has enlisted the help of club legend Scott Parker as his No.2 and he said: “He’s very important, very important. When I think about something I say, ‘Hey, Scotty, what do you think?’

“He knows the club but for me it is important that he knows very well the players. Then sometimes I have an idea and say, ‘Scotty, what do you think about this and this?’ And I believe him.”

The media room at the club’s training ground is one of the smallest in the top flight but it is still a measure of the Ranieri factor that it was standing room only for his first pre-match press conference.

The 67-year-old’s engaging manner gets people on his side, not least because of the self-deprecating way he is willing to admit past mistakes to explain the difficulty of the task ahead of him.

“At Leicester I started without Kante,” he said. “But during the training session I said, ‘I have to choose the position for him’. Slowly, slowly it was good.”

One thing is certain, Ranieri is back in his element and said: “I’m nervous when I’m out of work and don’t have matches to play – very nervous. Call my wife and talk to her.

“When I don’t have a job I don’t feel good. I feel good when I’m with you guys, my players and my job.

“When there is a match, I am in my sea. I can swim very well.”