Football News: The Tinkerman Returns

Image from: dailypost.ng

Well now that the dust has settled on Claudio Ranieri's appointment as the new Leicester City manager, to replace the outgoing Nigel Pearson, I think it is time to look at whether he is a good choice with a cool head. Despite the surprise surrounding the choice (did anyone out there at all know it was going to be the Tinkerman?), was it as bad as the media seem to be suggesting?

At one time Ranieri was highly rated enough as a manager to be the choice for Chelsea, though that was prior to the Roman Abramovich big spending era, they were still a club that wanted to challenge at the top end of the Premier League when they brought him in. So he is no mug at all, despite the often odd quotes given in the media, which are more him having fun at journalist's expense in my opinion.

This is a man who speaks three languages, Italian and Spanish before taking over in West London, he learnt English while in charge there, so he is not stupid by any means. When he is making comments about asking his mother's advice on team selection, you can be sure he is just pulling a few legs in the media room.

Is he a man for taking Leicester the next step up, away from the relegation dogfight and into midtable? It is certainly possible, his early managerial career suggests he has a good eye for a player, even if he likes to swap them around from game to game. He is credited with introducing Gianfranco Zola to the first team at Napoli, in his first Valencia spell he was credited with building the foundations for the later success.

Unfortunately in recent years he has moved up to a higher level, in terms of the aims of the jobs he has been given, and found wanting, always falling short of the level expected of him. My opinion is that is simply because he was at his level when he was building a team for upper half of the table finishes, he just is not quite able to turn that into the next level of consistent title challenges.

Stepping back down to a club that would see that as a success, at least in the short term, there is no telling where the owner's ambition sees the club in the long term, this could well be a good appointment. A chance for Ranieri to recover his reputation, while the Foxes get to build on the good work that Nigel Pearson did in getting them up and keeping them there.

The added bonus being that Ranieri is viewed with genuine affection by the media, so he can also undo some of the damage done in the Pearson era. Not just the confrontations and personal actions which cast a bad light on the club, but also the embarrassing conduct of the players in Thailand needed to be dealt with by the club in a way which immediately showed decisive action to remove those people involved.

While being liked is not a prerequisite for success, it does help the club get more, and favourable, publicity in an era when money is the main driving factor of the sport. That publicity could well lead to future success, especially as Ranieri is well known for being extremely quotable in a humourous way that will lead to more stories written about Leicester than any on pitch performance could do.

Written by Tris Burke July 15 2015 11:32:34