Claudio Ranieri : They'll knife you in the end
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RAN OUT ... Claudio Ranieri says farewell to the Chelsea fans
CLAUDIO RANIERI’S eyes filled with tears as he recalled one of the most enduring images in the history of the Premier League.
After four years at Chelsea it is the last two minutes of Ranieri’s reign that count the most. On May 15, 2004, 42,500 Chelsea fans at the Bridge saluted their boss after a draw with Leeds with a hair-raising ovation as he walked off the pitch for the last time.
When I asked him how he felt on that sunny Sunday afternoon there was a long pause as Ranieri welled up. With a broken voice he said: “I... these things you cannot forget. Never... they stay in your heart and in your mind.”
In the week ruthless Roman Abramovich dumped his latest managerial victim, World Cup winner Big Phil Scolari, this moment at Juventus’ Vinovo training ground seemed even more poignant.
Just two weeks before returning to Stamford Bridge with Juve for a Champions League clash, Ranieri admitted he knew his time was up when Abramovich arrived. He was dubbed ‘Dead Man Walking’ after chief executive Peter Kenyon stabbed him in the back by briefing the Sunday papers to confirm the Italian was finished two months before the season ended. Ranieri said: “I knew from the start, from the very beginning, I was just a dead man walking.
“Abramovich tried to get Sven Goran Eriksson but he was tied up with the England national team — and for that reason he left me in my job. “When they want to get a manager to replace you but they can’t — and that’s the reason they just give you a chance — then you know it will be impossible.
“I was thinking ‘Even if I win everything I will still get the sack’. “I knew that my time was up. For the first seven or 10 days I didn’t speak to Abramovich. Then I spoke to him and he explained what his vision was and asked me ‘What do you need to build this team?’
“I said ‘I need to buy 11 players’ because I needed to have two players for each position. But most pre-seasons had already started. “The Champions League qualifiers had already started and it wasn’t easy to take every player I wanted.”
England boss Eriksson was famously pictured meeting Abramovich and Kenyon in London and yet Ranieri stayed on as the Swede signed a bumper new contract with the FA.
Ranieri’s dignified silence after being undermined by the very people who were supposed to back him earned him even more popularity back then.
How can a manager work with that sort of pressure? Ranieri added: “It all became clear once Peter Kenyon arrived. With Abramovich we knew we had to build a team to be able to start winning.
“Kenyon arrived in February and started saying that if I didn’t win a trophy it would be a disaster. “The things didn’t add up. I was thinking to myself ‘The owner tells me to build a team and Kenyon says I have to win’. So at that point I understood everything.” It was pointless to take it up with the owner.
Ranieri added: “I didn’t speak to Roman about that. Kenyon was a person Abramovich brought to the club. I was someone Abramovich had found at Chelsea. Between the two of us, Kenyon would always have more credibility.”
Chelsea finished that season runners-up in the league and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. Ranieri begged Red Rom to let him stay on. The Italian added: “I spoke to Abramovich before he let me go and said ‘I’m sorry you’re new at the club because an owner who’s been in football for some time and sees what I have done for this club would never sack me — NEVER.
“He would give me the opportunity to complete my work. To do what I’ve done is incredible’. At the end of the season there were about 10 days that Abramovich was thinking about it before deciding to get Jose Mourinho.
“It saddens me that I was unable to finish my work.”
Ranieri is rarely given the credit he deserves for creating the spine of the team with which Mourinho triumphed. He brought in Frank Lampard and Claude Makelele and promoted a young John Terry to the first team.
But was Abramovich right to get Mourinho, who after all won back-to-back Premier League titles, two League Cups and the FA Cup?
Ranieri, who has a long-running feud with Inter boss Mourinho back in Italy, was coy. He added: “I haven’t said that. I said he took a manager who won the Champions League. Before, he wanted Eriksson because they had told him he was the best in the world. A year later Eriksson was no longer the best in the world, it was Mourinho.
“Two years later it was no longer Mourinho, it was Scolari. This is football and that is life.” Ranieri concluded: “I’m very curious to see how the fans respond to me this time when I come with Juventus.
“Everywhere in the world when Chelsea fans are around they come up to me and say ‘I miss you, you did a great job’. “All the pressure, the pain, the stress and the disappointment of that season was worth it.
“For the love of the fans, the real love I saw in the eyes of the people when I was walking off the pitch at Stamford Bridge that afternoon.”