By Mike Woitalla
Claudio Ranieri, recently the world’s most celebrated coach after engineering the Leicester City fairy tale — its first top-flight titlein its 133-year history — got the dreaded vote of confidence from his bosses on Tuesday. But he doesn’t see it that way.
The Foxes, with preseason odds of 5,000/1 to lift lastseason’s EPL title, finished on top, 10 points ahead of second-place Arsenal. For the first time in 38 years, England’s top-tier crowned a first-time champion. The Leicester Citychampionship was frequently described as the greatest achievement by a club in English soccer history.
This season, Raneiri’s team has won just five of its 24 EPL games, with only twovictories in its last 15 games. The Foxes have not scored an EPL goal in 2017 and sit just one point above the relegation zone.
Leicester City is now in danger of becoming only the second clubin English history to follow up a top-tier championship with relegation the next season after Manchester City in 1938.
On Tuesday, the club, on its official Web site, released the statement: “Inlight of recent speculation, Leicester City Football Club would like to make absolutely clear its unwavering support for its First Team Manager, Claudio Ranieri. … The entire Club is and willremain united behind its manager and behind its players, collectively and firmly focused on the challenges ahead.”
Ranieri appeared in a press conference shortly after the statement cameout and chuckled when a reporter ask him if he didn’t consider this a “kiss of death,” the dreaded vote of confidence that the
The 65-year-old Italian said he hasn’t lost the locker room, praisedhis players as “warriors and fighters,” and of the statement from the club, said:
“I think this is for you [the media] not for me because I know the idea of the chairman, ofthe club. I think this is more for you than for me. Maybe the chairman wants to stop all the speculation.”
A month ago, Ranieri was named FIFA Coach of the Year.
“You win three matches, you are god,” he said. “You lose three matches, you are not god.That is normal.”
His team is alive in the FA Cup – it faces Derby on Wednesday in a fourth-round replay. And it advanced to the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League, inwhich it faces Sevilla in the first-leg of the round of 16 on Feb. 22.
But maintaining its spot in the English Premier League is whatit’s really all about now, and the pressure is mounting. The Times of London reported that itsplayers face pay-cuts up to 40 percent if Leicester gets relegated.
Leicester held on to stars, such as Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and WesMorgan, from its championship team. It did sell N’Golo Kante to Chelsea.
Vardy scored 24 goals in the 2015-16 season butonly five so far this season. Mahrez scored 17 last season, and three so far this season.
Among the newcomers, recording signing Islam Slimani ($36 million from Sporting) hasscored five goals and returned from playing for Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations with an injury. Defender Luis Hernandez has already departed for Malaga. Forward AhmedMusa, who arrived from CSKA Moscow for a transfer fee of $22 million, has scored twice and went scoreless in the last 11 games. Defensive midfielder Nampalys Mendy ($17million from Nice) has not filled Kante’s shoes.
After Leicester’s title win, there was talk of new parity in the EPL, which saw just four clubs claim 22 of the previous 23 PremierLeague titles. But now the achievement looks like an aberration.
“It’s probably the biggest sporting story ever and the biggest sporting achievement ever,” Premier League chiefRichard Scudamore said after the Foxes won the EPL. “If the bookmakers had it as a 5,000-1 event, you would imagine you should achieve these type of things once every 5,000years. It gives us 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years of being able to say: ‘Leicester 2016. Just remember Leicester 2016.’”
The debates of whether Leicester could compete for the title again have beenreplaced by speculation of whether it can simply survive at the top tier. And how long the Coach of the Year will stay at Foxes’ helm.