Details are beginning to emerge.
At this stage of the Premier League season last year, after 25 games, perceived relegation favourites Leicester City were top of the table with 53 points, five clear of second place Tottenham Hotspur.
They would go on to win the title by 10 points, and Claudio Ranieri would win the 2016 FIFA coach of the year award, as well as the admiration and respect of football fans everywhere.
A year on, Leicester are one point and one place above the relegation zone, without a Premier League goal in 2017, and looking for a new manager after dismissing Ranieri.
News of the Italian’s sacking broke on Thursday night. The 65-year-old’s last game was Leicester’s credible 2-1 loss away to Sevilla in the last-16 of the Champions League the previous night.
Details are already beginning to emerge about how the club reached the decision.
According to a report in The Times, Leicester’s players had a key role in Ranieri’s dismissal, following a meeting on Wednesday evening.
The report claims:
- Leicester’s players were unhappy with Ranieri’s “frequent and unexplained changes to tactics and personnel.” They also reportedly had concerns about changes to training, and the diet regime. According to The Mirror, the players were unhappy that chicken burgers had been banned.
- The former Chelsea manager is said to have been “exasperated” by members of Leicester’s backroom staff whom he inherited from Nigel Pearson, his predecessor at the King Power stadium. And frustrated by his players’ apparent loss of motivation.
- The players are understood to have voiced their concerns about Ranieri in a meeting with the club’s owner in Seville, following the Champions League game.
- Ranieri was told about the decision at the club’s training ground on Thursday, and didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to the players, as they had already left the training ground.
According to Henry Winter, some of the players would like to see Pearson re-appointed as manager.
Some of the #lcfc players want Nigel Pearson back.
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) February 23, 2017
