Leicester have sacked their Premier League title-winning manager, Claudio Ranieri.
Leicester have sacked manager Claudio Ranieri less than a year after he led the club to the Premier League title.
In a club statement, Foxes vice chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha called it “the most difficult decision we have had to make in nearly seven years since King Power took ownership of Leicester City.”
Ranieri arrived at Leicester at the beginning of the 2015-16 season, with the Foxes among the favorites to be relegated after narrowly avoiding the drop under Nigel Pearson the season before.
The Italian, who was coming off a terrible, four-match long stint as Greece manager, wasn’t necessarily a popular choice, but he won fans over quickly as Leicester found themselves fighting for a place in the top four after 10 games of the season.
Leicester seemed to have eliminated the defensive problems that troubled them earlier in the season, and were, much to everyone’s disbelief, firmly in the title conversation at the midway point thanks to excellent performances by Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante.
Ranieri — who had multiple second place finishes, but no league titles on his resume — seemed to relish Leicester’s underdog status, insisting for most of the season the target for the Foxes was simply to avoid relegation.
The title win was the most unlikely in Premier League history — the Foxes were 5000-1 outsiders at the start of the season — and Ranieri’s laid-back, positive attitude seemed to be the perfect fit for a team that could scarcely have believed what was happening.
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This season, however, things have unravelled. A drop off was to be expected, but few thought it would be quite so severe. Leicester, who haven’t won a league match or scored a league goal in 2017, are one point clear of the relegation zone with 13 matches left to play.
Ranieri’s last game in charge was Wednesday’s Champions League round of 16 first leg against Sevilla. The Foxes managed to come away with respectable 2-1 loss, but they were dominated by a well-drilled, confident Sevilla side.
Things don’t get any easier in their next match, as Liverpool visit the King Power Stadium on Monday. The early favorites to replace Ranieri are Alan Pardew, Nigel Pearson and Avram Grant.