The media and other 'fans'

I really need to get this off my chest

I'm fed up of the media twisting the story to reflect badly on our club, the owners and the players. The more I see of it my personal view is that the player involvement has been greatly exaggerated and that it may have been not so much a revolt as confusion and lack of confidence arising from changes forced on them by Ranieri. The media has named certain players such as Albrighton who are passionately arguing against the claims. If so, they should sue for libel as it is running their names through the dirt.

As for 'fans' of other clubs spouting their hated on social media, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of them are clueless to the facts and just want to jump on the bandwagon. The rest are just angry for Ranieri the man without knowing a jot about the poor management we've been witnessing. I saw one guy state that our owners make ISIS look humane. WTF?

It's seriously damaging to the club and the reputation

 

Firstly, I wouldn't let what fans of other clubs think or say about us concern you. I bet they'd love to have gone through the rollercoaster of emotions we've experienced in the last 2 or 3 years, it's never dull being a Leicester fan is it? Secondly, we'll probably never know what has happened behind the scenes, no one will admit to having stabbed Claudio in the back, and he'll have a confidentiality clause in his severance pay off too. Just sit back and let the next chapter unfold, it's all good fun!

 

I'm not fussed about your average ****wit on FB. I'm a bit concerned it may affect potential managerial appointments or longer term if it continues, players being targeted if the club is portrayed as a circus. Hopefully it'll all blow over soon.
You are right that we likely won't find out. It just seems the media are keen to make Claudio look 100% innocent when we know that's not likely with bizarre decisions etc.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.te...-claudio-ranieris-leicester-city-sacking/amp/

Some interesting points from a reliable source on here including sacking the psychologist, confusing the players, alienating Shakey etc.

Interesting where it says he was sacked. I used to come home from uni at weekends for my part time job at the Radisson Blu at EMA. Lots of teams stayed there but never anything like that!

 

Absolutely agree with all the posts above. I reckon tomorrow night there will be an emotional outpouring of love for claudio. Hopefully the fans sing loud and proud and the team understand this and turn that into a galvanising lets get together and put this right spirit going forward. We can fix this we are capable... other fans of other teams obviously will go for the jugular... we would too. Tomorrow will be a difficult night. But the dust will settle and we have to be strong, pull together, continue to believe and we absolutely can survive, and maybe just maybe we can and will get the run of luck that has been so sadly lacking this season

 

Absolutely Martin, let's hope so. Obviously speculation is going to continue regarding us appointing a new manager but usually with these media storms another one comes along and everyone moves on to that.

 

Another good article by Jonathan Northcroft this time. Him and John Percy from the Guardian seem to be the fairest and most well informed where Leicester are concerned and Northcroft's book is a good read that shows his knowledge by going far further back than last season showing he is not a bandwagon jumper. I think it fills a lot of holes in the hate story the majority of the media are trying to brainwash people with

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-long-way-to-fall-for-ranieri-zs7xdb96w

 

It seems like some of these bandwagon people now are using Ranieri's flaws as a reason to defend him and slate the club. I've just seen multiple comments slamming us for buying rubbish players and giving out big contracts.
Erm...who do these geniuses think chose who to sign (clearly he did as the signing last are crap compared to the Walsh era) and who do they think would have pushed to get the bigger contracts signed and even signed one for himself!!

 

Sadly these days money rules everything and everybody. Everyone for themselves.
Whatever has gone on behind the scenes it doesn't excuse the poor performances the team has put in this season.
Whatever system they play they should be able to string more than 3 passes together, control the football, etc. etc.
Guess we'll never know the full story.

 

I agree. Ultimately the players need to take some responsibility even if this is just, as they have said themselves, down to poor performances as like you say, they aren't doing the basics of football. If they are telling the truth then it must be due to lack of confidence caused by changes but it is all speculation. What I disagree with is the club and players getting all the abuse from people who know nothing. They all need to take responsibility including Ranieri.
Anyway, hopefully we'll know more after tonight which after all the goings on, we haven't even got a thread for the match. My thoughts for what it's worth

Schmeichel
Simpson Morgan Huth Fuchs (give them a chance under Shakey)

Amartey Ndidi

Mahrez Drinky Gray

Vardy

Lots of the same names but a different system. As I say with the defence, give them a chance to put a performance in tonight

 

Tonight I'd go with:

Schmeichel
Simpson Amartey Huth Chilwell
Albrighton Ndidi
Mahrez Kapuska Gray
Vardy​

 

The article, which is far more balanced and fair than the majority in full. The link only allows you to read par of it unless you subscribe.

A long way to fall for Claudio Ranieri

Sacking of Ranieri was brutal but owners put interests of their club first

The satellite trucks and foreign television crews were back, Friday lunchtime, for a manager’s press conference at King Power stadium but not for dilly dongs, rather the death knell of a manager — and, some would have it, nothing less than sporting romance itself.

Leicester: the club that changed the world’s view of modern football only to trick us and change in a way that merely re-emphasised the game’s deep treachery. That picture may stick. On Friday evening, poor Claudio Ranieri was outside his house in Stoneygate, smilingly accepting hugs from a mournful female fan and, from a bloke, a bottle of red wine in a Leicester City plastic bag.

He issued a statement about his dream dying. That had been “to stay with Leicester City, the club I love, for always”. Jose Mourinho faced the media wearing the initials “CR” on his tracksuit. Via Twitter, Gary Lineker let it be known his tears were jerked.

Leicester: a year ago, this was a land of miracles. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Leonardo Ulloa scoring against Norwich and the King Power’s celebrations causing a small local earthquake. Last time Liverpool visited, Jamie Vardy bagged goal of the season in front of a Hollywood producer who decided to turn his life story into a film. After, a fan got 5,000 signatories on a petition to make his girlfriend name their baby daughter “Vardy”.

Now? “Disgrace!” concluded a message sent through official lines to the club after Ranieri’s sacking was made public at 8pm on Thursday. The sender was a foreign journalist. “INGLESI INGRATI” thundered La Gazzetta Dello Sport, who said: “Leicester, the club who, with Ranieri, became a prince, courted by the world’s media, return to being a normal frog.”

It’s a great line. And they are right. And, don’t worry, Leicester know it. But while they have opened commercial offices in London and toured Los Angeles on the back of winning last season’s Premier League title, the club, an official said, had to think “of the 200 people who work here, and the core supporters” — not new fans or neutrals with a romantic, fleeting interest. Owners Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and his son, Aiyawatt, are duty-free magnates but this was a decision taken for the natives not the tourists.

Guus Hiddink, who could play a firefighting role, is the subject of speculation

Lineker’s tears will dry and Mourinho will wear a different top today; for the Srivaddhanaprabhas it has to be about lasting issues, like top-flight survival. Under Ranieri, Leicester had won one and lost seven of their past 10 Premier League games, failing to score in the league in 2017, despite £80m spent to reinforce a title-winning squad, and they kick off against Liverpool down among the relegation contenders. The owners did what romantics will not: forget last season and just look at this.

The absence, on social media, of goodwill messages for Ranieri from players was picked up on and significant. As was the nuance in how Craig Shakespeare described he and Ranieri’s farewell chat on Thursday: “A brief phone call where we exchanged views. But at the end we did thank each other.”

A well-sourced reporter had “close friends” of Ranieri saying “the vast majority” of players were behind him, furthering the torrent of media blame towards an “ungrateful” squad for his demise. Another, who knows Ranieri well, pointed towards discord with Shakespeare in his analysis. There are always two sides. Stay “for always” at Leicester? Come on. Cuddly as Claudio can be, can he only be taken at face value? Last season, wasn’t that his rivals’ mistake?

Players felt Shakespeare was isolated by Ranieri this season. Some also felt that Ranieri did little to keep Steve Walsh, who departed for Everton in summer. Walsh and Shakespeare were the assistants Ranieri inherited when he replaced Nigel Pearson — and the Pearson-Walsh-Shakespeare triumvirate built most of the squad, not just in terms of personnel but culture.

Despite Pearson’s alpha male image, his way was to empower players and staff, encourage opinions, even defer to them on key issues like training schedules — hence the unusually “light” regime when Leicester, making the fewest changes, suffering the fewest injuries, won the title. They did full training just two days a week. and were just back from a week’s holiday a year ago.

Ranieri had wanted to change things when he arrived but part of his genius was recognising he’d inherited a club where much already worked — Leicester survived under Pearson with seven wins from nine games. He listened to Shakespeare regarding training, and Walsh on recruitment: to replace Esteban Cambiasso, Ranieri signed Gokhan Inler but allowed Walsh his own candidate, N’Golo Kante. This season the collegiate style of management, lauded by the World Economic Forum last season, seemed gone.

Players felt he communicated less. His habit — in contrast to Pearson’s workaholic culture — of leaving the training ground by 1.30pm began grating. Days off were cancelled and the training load increased — there was even a session on the morning of an FA Cup tie against Derby.

As results declined, he transmitted suspicion (particularly unfounded in one case) about players’ off-field activities, causing umbrage. There were threats to hole them up in a hotel if they didn’t win games — “you don’t see your wife.”

A constant changing of formation, line-up and tactics baffled. Shinji Okazaki said the team never lost spirit but became “confused what to do with it” and how to play without Kante. The January transfer window, and further outlay on Wilfred Ndidi, was supposed to bring clarity but in consecutive defeats against Manchester United and Swansea, Ranieri had to make two half-time substitutions in tacit admission his selection was wrong; changes at the interval or early in the second half were becoming common.

Players felt they were going on field with too many instructions; all such a shame, because Ranieri’s use of Pearson’s template with only a sprinkling of “Italian tactics, my little tactics” seemed so clever last year.

His preference for Ahmed Musa over Demarai Gray became a bone of contention. Gray is highly rated by the squad’s old lags not just for his ability but mentality, while Musa was struggling to adapt to English football. The away goal, in Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat in Seville, that gives Leicester a fighting chance of reaching the Champions League quarter- finals came after Gray replaced Musa and changed the game: teammates thought not starting Gray in the first place was “bizarre”.

Dismissing Ranieri was decided before Seville — in the wake of a 2-0 defeat at Swansea, where the owners did not get the “bounce” hoped for from a bonding meal with players and now-sorry-looking vote of confidence in Ranieri. The club suggests that if Khun Vichai spoke to a couple of players on Thursday it was to inform them about a decision already taken, not to seek opinion.

Player sources scotch the notion of a meeting where the squad sought Ranieri’s head. What is likely is the owners knew the dressing room concerns about their former manager. If “player power” was at work then that term, with relation to Leicester, needs to be properly understood.

The title, remember, was won by a group deliberately empowered, whose strength of mind was their greatest asset, and the Srivaddhanaprabhas have close bonds with the significant number who have been there for four, five or more years. They are owners who stage social events for their squad and look after them on personal levels: they have an understanding what players are thinking without needing meetings.

Their Thai-Buddhist background make them prize loyalty and generosity. On one level they deserted these principles by showing Ranieri none, on another they stuck to them by going with their older employees, the player group, and their perceived needs.

What do the players want now? For many, Pearson back. It’s believed Leicester have gone a little way to exploring that option but that the reality is difficult to envisage, because of the emotive circumstances behind Pearson’s departure in summer 2015.

Martin O’Neill has many friends, including director Jon Rudkin, still at the club from his time as manager. Roberto Mancini’s representatives have a line into Eduardo Macia, who replaced Walsh as recruitment head, but Mancini is eyeing the Milan job and Macia himself might now be under pressure: a Ranieri appointment and family friend, he and Rudkin presided over the frustrating January transfer window.

Guus Hiddink, in another firefighter role, is the intriguing subject of Dutch speculation. Chelsea exploits may particularly impress the Srivaddhanaprabhas, who had a box at Stamford Bridge before owning Leicester. An extended stint for Shakespeare would be the next-best-thing to Pearson for players — and is a real possibility.

“In selecting the next manager they should look at what made them good. Togetherness. Mentality. Happiness. The English style. Leicester is a very ordinary club without all that,” said a source with a strong handle on the thoughts of the dressing room.

The fans loved Ranieri but also love their old players and respect the ownership, and bet on unity rather than rancour at the King Power tomorrow night. As Mourinho said, “you can never press delete” on what Ranieri did but he himself is part of the odd statistic that tells us four of the past seven Premier League champions sacked their manager within a year. It’s why Sir Alex Ferguson was the strangest, fiercest beast: achieving success, and knowing what to do after it, are such different things.

 

Albrighton central defensive midfield? How bizarre.

 

Yes, a good job he didn't play my team!! Liverpool were s**t though, there for the taking.

 

I've seen Carraghers comments on sky. He was saying the sacking is a sad indictment of all the money in the game and causes owners to make these kinds of decisions.
Whilst I agree with him and it is ruining the game, it was Sky who started it FFS with the likes of BT piling on more recently so it's quite rich of a pundit on sky to moan about money ruining the game I think

 

Think last night was a reaction from the players to the media saying it was them who influenced the sacking, but no doubt they'll be running headlines today about how they played better because they have finally "got their way"

 

"i'm fed up waaaaaah waaaah people criticising us waaah waaah "


Your club is a disgrace and any of you disagreeing with that is in on it.

If you don't want to be called ****s, don't act like ****s.

 

Then what are you doing on our board talking about things you have no clue about? Toddle off now

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/spare-fake-outrage-dont-patronise-9942758

Pretty much nails it.

 

We should forget a lot of what's in the press and the bile from some other fans ... but here's someone's view that I'm willing to ...

Wenger on Ranieri sacking
Liverpool v Arsenal (17:30 GMT, Saturday 4 March)
Posted at9:46
Arsene Wenger also sent his best wishes to former Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri who was sacked by the Foxes last week.
"I was surprised and disappointed. I take this opportunity to wish him well and congratulations to him for what he achieved at Leicester," said the Frenchman.
"What will happen in the future for Leicester I don't know but the players responded well against Liverpool. They are in a fight to stay in the league but they have enough quality."

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