SCHMEICHEL: IT HURTS WE DID SO BADLY

said to enable Ranieri to say his farewells before training and the owners to give their input afterwards with time tight. But it did preclude a face-to-face meeting.

It is unclear if the father-son pair have spoken directly to Ranieri since deciding to sack him, although Leicester sources indicated that is likely to have happened. Rudkin was the one to deliver the news on Thursday night.

Once yesterday’s session was over Leicester’s owners called Shakespeare, his support staff, and the players together to deliver a rallying call ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Liverpool. They had left the premises by the time Crystal Palace beat Middlesbrough to plunge their club into the relegation zone.

Schmeichel also delivered his words well before Palace’s victory, and launched a staunch defence of the players’ role in Ranieri’s demise.

‘We are players, we can only affect on the pitch and we haven’t done that,’ said Schmeichel. ‘What happens above our heads at boardroom level is completely out of our control.’

The goalkeeper described reports of dressing-room rancour at Ranieri as ‘very hurtful’ and denied there had been a meeting between senior players and the owners after the Sevilla defeat.

Describing Ranieri’s return to face his players for the first time since being dismissed, Schmeichel said: ‘Everybody knows he’s a classy guy, he thanked us for our efforts for last season and said goodbye.

‘As always, a very classy man, very humble, very gracious. When you share a moment like that together, you feel sad that it comes to this. He was a very gracious.

‘Claudio is an emotional guy. I wouldn’t say there were tears, but you could hear it hurt. And it hurt the players that we hadn’t performed well enough.’

Ranieri arrived at the training ground at 10am and left around 45 minutes later, stopping briefly to talk to a waiting Sky Sports reporter. ‘I feel good now,’ he said.

Asked if that was his genuine emotion, Ranieri responded: ‘Yes, of course, because what we achieved in Leicester I hope could happen again, but it will be very difficult.

‘Emotional? No it was normal. I don’t speak anymore, just to say thank you to the fans. They are fantastic. Thank you.’ Ranieri then drove away.