Ranieri: I’ll get tough to improve my players

SLACK ACES WARNED

CLAUDIO RANIERI may have arrived all-smiles at Fulham, but he has told his players not to be fooled into thinking he doesn’t have a temper.

The Italian has taken the softly, softly approach as he prepares for his first game in charge against Southampton this afternoon.

The Cottagers are rock-bottom of the Premier League after seven successive defeats and Ranieri says if that poor form continues his new players will soon see another side to him.

“Don’t look at me here, with all the smiling,” he said. “In the dressing room, I am different. It depends what happens.

“Sometimes I could take this table and flip it in the air. Have I flipped a table before? Yes, at Chelsea. All the vitamins – boom! boom! boom!”

Ranieri mimed being showered with tiny pill bottles and sports energy drinks, brushing himself off in pantomime fashion. But a glint in his eye tells you this was no charade.

“Of course that’s a side you have never seen – never,” he said. “But my players know me. My players know me very well.

“Sometimes I enjoy, sometimes I am very strong. Have I been strong here? No. With these players? No – not yet.”

At least Fulham’s players can breathe a sigh of relief... for now.

He added: “At this moment I must give confidence. It depends on the result.

‘‘When I say our fans must help us, it is because our players need confidence. They need to feel good feelings with the fans because, maybe, they are a little anxious, nervous. That is normal.”

Ranieri, however, says there is something that the players have to give back to their loyal supporters in return.

“We have to fight,” he said. “Our fans must understand that, at this moment, we have to fight. They must be happy when they see their players fighting on the pitch – win or lose.

“But I am confident because I know my players. Before coming, I watched matches and I said, for me, this is a good team. They just lack some energy.

“That is something that I can now give to them.”