I can’t allow my Foxes to fade, says Ranieri
AMONG the phone calls Claudio Ranieri received after lifting last season’s Premier League trophy, one of the first was from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Interesting, then, that the Leicester City manager revealed yesterday he had already spotted the kind of signs among his players in pre-season that used to drive Ferguson potty.
‘I did not see the same mentality together,’ said Ranieri. ‘Everybody worked hard but not as a team, and that is the difference.
‘I didn’t get angry with them, but they know. I want to see more. I want everybody together. This year, teams will want to kill us.’
At Leicester’s training ground, little had changed. There was nothing to indicate it is now home of the Premier League champions.
In one corner of the training field was the helicopter of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
As Ranieri talked, Srivaddhanaprabha was two miles away watching the King Power Stadium being blessed by Buddhist monks. Again, all pretty standard at the modern Leicester City.
But parked outside the King Power were unmistakable trappings of success. Eighteen blue BMW cars, gifts for the players from the owner. All very nice but one wonders what Ranieri feels as he bids to recapture the underdog spirit that drove his team last season.
The Italian, tanned after what he described as a ‘short holiday’, would not elaborate on the cars.
‘There are some gifts,’ he said. ‘But I don’t know. I think about the match, not cars.’
Ranieri, however, was quite happy to reveal he did not return from Leicester’s pre-season visit to Los Angeles a completely happy man.
Leicester lost 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in California and he said: ‘I have told the players I know them very well and I want more from them.
‘Forget what we achieved. They cannot say to me: “This is my maximum”. I want more than the maximum. That’s why I was not happy in Los Angeles. I am very curious about what we can do this time.
‘But I don’t want my players to ever give up against the big teams or anybody.
‘We can lose but I want to see them playing together and helping each other. Suffer for your team-mates, that’s the philosophy. It is hard to repeat, but I want it. Last season I was satisfied and now I want it again.’
Ferguson once famously railed against his players on the field immediately after a cup final triumph with Aberdeen. That was all rather extreme.
Ranieri’s message came cloaked in smiles but it was clear enough. Last season represented long-overdue achievement for the Leicester boss and he wants to see his team deliver the right kind of performance when they face United in the Community Shield at Wembley tomorrow.
‘Other managers called me but I will name Ferguson because he doesn’t work in the game now,’ added Ranieri.
‘It is great because I have never won a title before. I’ve been runner-up but, now I have won a title, my career can start. I never gave up. I always believed in myself.
‘If one man really wants to achieve, then a man can achieve. But now I want more.’
Ranieri has spent much of the summer trying to keep his squad together. From that perspective, his experience will have been unique for a new title winner.
Midfield cornerstone N’Golo Kante will begin the new campaign as a Chelsea player, while interest in Riyad Mahrez from Arsenal remains strong.
Leading goalscorer Jamie Vardy has signed a new contract, however, and he may play tomorrow complete with his trademark cast despite a successful operation last month to fuse a fractured wrist bone.
‘I have watched him and he is the same, he is happy,’ said Ranieri. ‘The European Championship in France did not affect him and he is ready to repeat last season.’