Claudio was a victim of football’s loss of loyalty
IT IS hard to say exactly when football changed, when some of the romance and loyalty were replaced by hard-headed commercialism. But it wasn’t last week, however shocked and saddened I was by Claudio Ranieri’s dismissal.
It felt brutal, given the miracle he achieved last season. And it didn’t feel right, coming after that late goal against Sevilla gave them hope. Of all people, you would have thought Ranieri had at least earned the right to take them through to the end of the season.
But then I think back to my first manager at Tottenham, Keith Burkinshaw. I was just 18 when he took over at the club and we were relegated in his first season in charge. It’s unthinkable that a manager in charge of a major club such as Spurs could survive that now.
And yet he stayed, we came back up the following season and challenged for league titles, won two FA Cups and the UEFA Cup, playing thrilling football with Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa in the team.
However, by 1984 there had been a change at the club. Irving Scholar, who would later become a friend of mine, had taken over. He saw where football was going. The club became the first to float on the Stock Exchange and to build a stand with executive boxes. At the end of the 1984 season, with Tottenham having won the UEFA Cup, Burkinshaw was sacked. The chairman wanted more control over transfers and to prepare the club for a new era.
There is a famous line attributed to Keith upon leaving White Hart Lane for the last time: ‘There used to be a football club over there.’ It was the Eighties and the City of London and yuppies were discovering the sport.
There have always been harsh sackings in football but Keith’s career probably spanned a period of change in the professional game. The loyalty shown to him in 1977 had disappeared by 1984. It was maintained at other clubs, the most famous example being Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards sticking with Alex Ferguson even though he won no trophies between 1986 and 1990. It has eroded over time.
But the fact that football has changed doesn’t mean we should simply accept that Leicester did the right thing in the face of relegation. I don’t believe they would have gone down and I think Ranieri had earned the chance to save them.
It wasn’t just that they had scored against Sevilla, it was the identity of the scorer: Jamie Vardy. A team with an excellent striker in scoring form has a great chance of staying up. Jermain Defoe showed that last season.
Vardy hadn’t scored since his hat-trick against Manchester City in early December. Now he’s ended that slump, he could go on run. It’s just very sad Ranieri won’t be there to oversee it.
His sacking takes nothing away from what he achieved. Nothing is ever likely to surpass it as a Premier League shock.
He can stand proud as he leaves the club, even if he knows, like every manager, that the loyalty you need to succeed these days is in short supply.