Claudio Ranieri has launched a staunch defence of his managerial career, and in particular his disastrous time in charge of Greece, as he prepares to come face to face with Jürgen Klopp on Saturday for the first time since he visited the Liverpool manager while out of work 11 months ago.
Ranieri had been sacked by Greece six weeks earlier, following a humiliating defeat against the Faroe Islands that led to scathing criticism of him from the Hellenic Football Federation’s president, and he was at a low ebb when he travelled to La Manga to meet up with Klopp at Borussia Dortmund’s winter training camp.
Now Ranieri is at the centre of one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the Premier League as Leicester City, who were anchored to the bottom this time last year, head to Anfield enjoying the view from the top of the table.
Asked how he could account for the last year, and such a dramatic turnaround in his own fortunes, Ranieri expressed frustration that his brief spell with Greece had been allowed to overshadow everything that had gone before. “People will say: ‘How is this possible?’” Ranieri said. “Look, in my career what was important was just four matches [with Greece]; what I did before those four matches with Greece was nothing … My pedigree was down. How is that possible?
“I trained with Greece for 15 days split four times. Three or four training sessions. What can I do? I am not a magician. The players are good, but if you don’t have the time to speak with them … they play, then they go home. You train for three days. After that it was: ‘Ranieri is no good … go home.’ I was sacked. But then another coach arrived and he was worse. Another arrived, he was worse. That is not Ranieri.
“For statistics, I know that where I was sacked nobody was better than me. I don’t know if I’m a good manager or not, but I do know that a team with me makes a maximum. The statistics say this. For me my reputation is not important. I know I’m an honest man, I am not ‘good after I was not good’. It’s the right balance.
“I love my job, I have so much passion. I have a team and I give to them my heart. I don’t care about ‘is he good, not good’, old manager, young manager – those are words. What is important is what happens on the pitch.”
Ranieri went through Sokratis Papastathopoulos, the Greece international and a Dortmund player, to set up the meeting with Klopp as he sought to make the most from his time out of management.
“Every time I have time I go to another [manager]. I watched Pep Guardiola, I watched Klopp, I have been to watch Bayer Leverkusen, Augsburg. Last winter I was twice in Germany to watch football. I want to learn. Football is always the same – you can learn; if you have an open mind, you can take. I am like a Japanese camera – I take a photo and I get better. At the beginning Japanese cars weren’t good and now they are better than the others.”
