A risk-free decision? Dysfunctional club proved a task beyond Ranieri
FULHAM v CHELSEA
THE comment never sounded right in the first place. When Fulham chairman Shahid Khan insisted in November that Claudio Ranieri was a ‘risk-free’ appointment, it did make you wonder. How could Ranieri be guaranteed to rescue a team so badly out of shape, a team that simply did not know how to defend?
Even for someone of the Italian’s vast experience, a folklore hero of Leicester’s t i t l e g l o r y, the remark seemed wildly optimistic.
As it is, Craven Cottage must now gird its loins for another tough season of Championship football.
Th a t wo u l d b a s i c a l ly b e the job description for Scott Parker, now in charge for the run-in. He has got to lift heads and introduce more purpose to this disorganized outfit 10 points from safety.
What a great shame for this beguiling club that won so many friends with its attractive brand of football on the way to promotion last year. All that hard work has come to nothing, despite last summer’s lavish spending spree. If relegation does indeed hit, belts will have to be tightened by quite a few notches.
But Parker cannot worry about that. For him, it is about testing the water as a number one, seeing if it suits both him and the players. Nobody can know that until they are thrown in. You can be t h e mo s t a mb i t i o u s character in the world but that counts for nothing if you do not have the natural authority to oversee a large group of individuals.
Such authority, of course, has come into question up the road at Stamford
Pedro broke the deadlock for Chelsea in their fine victory over Tottenham on Wednesday and he is 11/2 to score first at Craven Cottage
on Sunday Bridge where Maurizio Sarri has had to try to regain some kind of control following last week’s shenanigans with Kepa Arrizabalaga during the EFL Cup Final at Wembley. Has the dust now settled, as Chelsea would like us to believe? Or does resentment still fester between goalkeeper and manager?
Only those in the Chelsea dressing room know that. But a good win on Sunday should allow everyone to move on from the incident.