Leicester City: Claudio Ranieri sacking may prove right move, but timing is dreadful
Claudio Ranieri has been sacked by Leicester City less than a year after winning the Premier League. A decision which may well ultimately prove to be correct. But why now?
Claudio Ranieri is no longer the manager of Leicester City. The Italian sensationally brought the club the Premier League title last season, but now finds himself out of work. Ranieri was at the club for just one and a half seasons.
The Foxes have had a catastrophic decline this season which has seen them go from being champions, to, perhaps, not even being a Premier League club next season. Leicester have a serious fight on their hands to survive relegation. Ranieri will no longer be a part of that fight.
A potential Ranieri exit has been debated for weeks now. Some said it would be crazy to sack the man who did the impossible last season. Whilst others argued Ranieri has to be judged on today, not yesterday.
It’s easy to look at last season and see why Ranieri was so protected by many. To say he did the impossible is no overstatement. But this season, the champions of England could be relegated, and he is the man overseeing that decline.
Last year brought the title because Leicester City deserved it, and Ranieri rightly took a his fair share of praise for that remarkable achievement. But now things have gone south, Ranieri must also take the flack the other way.
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Any other club would have moved sooner. Ranieri can have no complaints based on this year’s performances. Only last year’s success could have saved him from the sack. However, despite that, one area Ranieri can certainly have a complaint about is the timing of his dismissal.
Leicester played against Sevilla in the Champions League on Wednesday. The Foxes lost 2-1, but pre-game were expected to lose more emphatically and more heavily. Leicester were woeful in the first half, but the second half was different.
More energy. More fight. A bigger goal threat. Ranieri re-jigged the team around in the second half and Leicester fought back to earn a credible 2-1 scoreline heading into the second leg. Leicester, for a spell, looked more like their old selves. More like the team everybody admired last season.
It was far from Leicester at their best, but it was a start. Or so it may have been. Now nobody will know. If the team go on to look brighter under a new manager, then the new boss will be credited with that. If they don’t, then it’s the same old Leicester of this season.
Given the way the Sevilla game ended, Ranieri deserved at least a couple of games to see if their had been a light bulb moment in Spain. If they were going to anyway, then the club could have just dismissed Ranieri four or five games ago. No problem. But now, the timing just seems so strange.
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Regardless, the club have made their move. Right time or wrong time, Ranieri has been sacked. Rather than time, the more pertinent question is whether it will prove to be the right decision in the end or not.
And to answer that, strangely, only time will now tell.