Claudio Ranieri’s romance with Leicester City is over.
The coach that pulled off a miracle last season and become a club legend has been sacked, and who knows when they will ever lift the Premier League trophy again.
I know they are in a difficult situation, facing a relegation battle, but clubs expect players and coaches to be loyal, so should surely return the favour.
They should be building statues of the man who won them the trophy most clubs around England – including Leicester until last season – could only dream of.
This really is a crazy and unforgivable decision. You can say what you like about their performance this season, but give the man more time and show him a bit of respect. Every time you hear or read a statement that a club is behind their manager, you know in reality his days are counted and they already have a replacement lined up. They are just waiting for the right timing to let him go.
One of the reasons why I loved playing football was because I had more control of my own destiny. I just had to make sure I did well in the team and performed well for myself. When you are a coach there are a lot more factors and this situation is one of those.
But what were Leicester thinking? That they were going to win the title again this season?
This season was always going to pan out differently. Now teams want Leicester to boss possession and understand that it is harder than waiting for your opponent to makes a mistake and capitalising on it, as they did last season.
They have had to deal with the added difficulty of being the team to beat. This season their opponents have sat back, let them have the ball and then counterattacked. That’s exactly how Leicester played last season, the only thing they’re lacking now is that energy and the will to win that was so apparent last season.
Sometimes you have to realise as a club that you reached the highest achievement in your history. Now it’s time to focus on building a great foundation for the future. There is only one solution to achieve that, and that is respect and time.