RAN OUT ... Claudio Ranieri says farewell to
the Chelsea fans
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.”
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