The news that shocked the footballing world on the night it was announced doesn’t get any less shocking in the cold light of the following morning. As Leicester City sacked Claudio Ranieri, the first thoughts turned to sadness and – almost – disbelief. And they seem to have stayed there.On a calculating, business level, you can see Leicester’s predicament: their team is in a relegation battle, quite a few of the clubs around them have changed their manager and enjoyed a bounce from it, and there’s enough time left in the season for the Foxes to do the same.[ad_pod id=’now-tv’ align=’centre’]On a human level, though, this is jarring. A man who was mocked during his time at Chelsea was mocked again when he first arrived at the King Power Stadium only to take a team of what looked like relegation no-hopers to the Premier League title. It’s the stuff of films, of course, and Hollywood hasn’t been too far away from The Leicester City Story. But rather than blockbuster biopic of Jamie Vardy, this felt more like a coming-of-age story about a teacher with unusual methods arriving at an inner-city school and turning the struggling kids into winners. Everything, from Ranieri’s genial, ’aw grandad’ demeanour to Jamie Vardy’s struggles with ankle monitors and incidents in casinos, seemed to fit so perfectly.It wasn’t meant to end like this.And yet, how exactly did we expect it to end? Leicester are doing pretty much exactly what any other club would do in their current situation. The only difference is that they’ve just won the league title. That makes the disloyalty to their manager all the more unnerving, but had they simply had a decent season and finished in eighth last time around, this would feel like the logical and correct decision.The wider point, though, will always be about loyalty. Over the last five seasons, Manuel Pellegrini is the only title-winning manager to have finished the following season in his job. He was then ditched in favour of Pep Guardiola at the end of the season after that.
Football, of late, seems to have become less about winning and more about ticking boxes. The never-ending flow of the football stream means seasons roll into each other and the gap between them blurs.
Two examples stand out already this week. For Manchester United, winning the Europa League won’t be seen as an achievement in itself but rather a route into next season’s Champions League, especially if the club don’t finish in the Premier League’s top four.
Similarly Tottenham Hotspur didn’t seem to put up much of a fight in the Champions League, content to crash out in the group stages if that means finishing in the top four in the league, just so they can get back into the money again next season.
And there’s the rub for Ranieri. The rewards for staying in the Premier League actually matter more than winning it. Just the same as getting into the Champions League actually matters more than competing in it.
In a way, though, Ranieri’s crime was going against that grain. If the Foxes had prioritised the Premier League over the Champions League at the start of the season, perhaps they’d be gearing up for a Europa League tie after finishing third in their group, but would probably also be sitting comfortably in mid-table under no threat of relegation.
In the end, though, Leicester City – this fairytale club turned cautionary tale – don’t do things in moderation or measurement. They lean to extremes. Great escape, followed by title triumph, followed by all-out disaster. Did we really expect calm?
If we are shocked now, though, remember how shocked we were when Leicester stayed up under Nigel Pearson; how shocked we were when Pearson’s sacking was precipitated by unspeakable scandal on a pre-season tour; how shocked we were when they appointed Ranieri as manager. Remember how shocked we were at their rise, and how shocked we were by their fall.
But when you think about it, after all the shocks that the Foxes have sprung, their final one sacking Claudio Ranieri really ought not to be that shocking at all. Welcome to modern football, it’s where you’ve been living this whole time.
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