The fairy tale ended in the worst way. Nine months after winning the Premier League, Claudio Ranieri was sacked by Leicester. The Roman coach has a contract until 2020.
Just two days earlier, the team had emerged head-on from the first leg of the round of 2 of the Champions League, a 1-XNUMX defeat at Sevilla. The club has also decided to fire Ranieri's collaborators, Paolo Benetti and Andrea Azzalin.
“Tonight Leicester City Football Club dissolved the relationship with their first team coach Claudio – reads the Foxes press release which traces the history of Ranieri at the helm of the club – Claudio led Foxes to achieve the greatest triumph in 133 years of club history when we were crowned champions of England for the first time last season. His profile is undoubtedly that of Leicester's most successful manager of all time. However, the results achieved this year in the current season have placed the Premier League champion club in a dangerous situation, and for this reason the Council reluctantly believes that a change of technical guidance, which is certainly painful, is necessary for the most high interest of the club”.
Club statement: #lcfc and Claudio Ranieri part company: https://t.co/C5qnSVxDgU pic.twitter.com/VqlHy1I6Ut
- Leicester City (@LCFC) 23 February 2017
The disastrous performance of the Foxes in 2017 was fatal to the Roman coach: just one point in six championship games and fourth from bottom in the standings, just one point away from relegation. Merciless numbers: zero goals in the league for over 10 hours, like no other team in English professional football.
An endless free fall, despite which, however, only last week the Thai owners had expressed "their unconditional trust" in the Roman coach. Last night, sudden as well as unexpected, the dismissal was made official through the press release that appeared on the website of the English club.
