Loyalty means nothing now

Two weeks ago in these very column inches I spoke of the sheer lunacy surrounding the chat about Claudio Ranieri getting sacked.

Lo and behold on Thursday night, the Italian was handed his jotters.

Forced out the door allegedly by a group of players who seemed to forget the man who made them.

A lot of the details still seem murky surrounding the departure of the ‘Tinkerman’from the King Power Stadium.

We may never find out the true story behind this sickening betrayal but one thing that is for certain is that the Leicester board and players have not covered themselves in glory.

In my lifetime, I can’t think of a team who were being willed the world over to win the league before being universally despised 12 months later. So they should be. I feel sorry for the Foxes fans who will have to bear the brunt of this for a long time.

The simple fact is the majority of fans didn’t want Ranieri sacked because they realised the magnitude of his achievements last year.

Leicester are a club who should be battling relegation every year and in reality, can thank their lucky stars that they have been in the Premiership for three years.

It goes to show something we’ve all expected for a good few years now – loyalty is worth nothing in the game.

The next time a player or manager gets offered a multi-million pound deal to go to another club just remember the Ranieri debacle.

Why should one man be so loyal to a club when they would throw him under the open-top bus as quick as they possibly could.

The owners will say it was to protect the Premiership status of the club.

I for one hope they get shown up for what they are and relegation comes their way.

Owners must back their manager and not buckle under the first sign of something going wrong.

It’s not the correct way to run a business and at the end of the day that is what these clubs are now.

And when it comes to business, Ranieri helped Leicester ten-fold.

He won them hundreds of millions in prize money, shirt sales and increased the value of a very average Leicester squad.

Ranieri helped Leicester ten-fold in his time