When Bobby Robson was in charge of Porto televised interviews were broadcast with subtitles. Even though he was learning Portuguese, scribes who were baffled by his accent preferred the help of a translator. They were impressed that he at least tried to get to grips with their language even if his interpretation was unusual to say the least. 'It takes a lot of courage to work abroad,' said Robson at the time. 'A lot of fortitude. A lot of inner strength.' Being a football manager is a lonely job, lonelier still when you cannot always make yourself understood.
Robson, more than most English managers, can empathise with Claudio Ranieri's Chelsea experience: the frustrations when you can't express yourself with maximum impact. The suspicions when you are not sure what is being said about you. 'The last season,' Ranieri admits, 'I was an actor.' The Chelsea coach has taken a giant step towards being himself now that he feels confident enough to present himself to the public in his adopted tongue. Finally, 11 months into his Stamford Bridge reign, the real Claudio Ranieri has stood up.
So who is he? Listening to him theorise and watching him cackle at his own jokes he is evidently a likeable man with a dramatic personality and an abundance of self-belief. He is suffused with a fierce passion for football, which he is more than happy to share, now that he can. Ranieri is an enthusiastic communicator. He gesticulates furiously, demands direct eye contact, likes to punctuate his quips with a pantomime laugh, seeks a response.
Introductions over, and now the language barrier has been dismantled, he will be judged on results alone. In many ways that is a relief. 'For me it is not important to be popular, I want to win,' he growls. This winning drive has more to do with his competitive nature than job preservation at a club impatient for glory. Besides, if things don't work out and Valencia's new coach Rafa Benitez doesn't click, his old friends from Spain would have Ranieri back like a shot. 'Do I feel pressure about Ken Bates changing seven coaches in 10 years?' he ponders. 'In Italy they change 10 coaches in one year. And remember, I worked for Jesus Gil.' He recounts the story of Atletico Madrid going bankrupt and the chairman coming to a sticky end. 'That was the first time the manager stayed and the chairman was out!' he booms. 'I like difficult jobs. I like to gamble in my work.'
Just as well, some might say, given Chelsea's recent penchant for under-achievement. He knows he has little time to enforce the winning mentality he craves, and he has taken a daring risk by overhauling his entire midfield at a time when there is precious little leeway for them to gel as a unit. Adding Emmanuel Petit, Frank Lampard and Boudewijn Zenden to last winter's acquisition of Jesper Gronkjaer, the area of the team he describes as the 'reference point' has to show its mettle from this afternoon's opening encounter against Newcastle - who also have the distraction of a vital Inter-Toto Cup match against Troyes preying on their minds.
Ranieri is eager to inspire the kind of determination he possessed as a player at Roma, Catanzaro and Catania, a toughness that would be so beneficial to his team. He has no doubts about his players' individual spirit, but yearns for that to mushroom into a powerful team spirit - previously Chelsea's downfall. 'When I speak to my players I tell them: "I want English character!"' he bellows. 'I can lose, but I want to lose struggling and fighting. When I played my qualities were so-so, but my character? Me and Jamie Carragher are very similar.' He roars with laughter, references to the England midfielder who clattered Zenden during last week's England-Holland game fresh in the mind.
Zenden, a long-standing target for Newcastle, will not be popular with the travelling Toon Army, having treated interest from the north-east with disdain. 'We chased Zenden for several months and I told him to come and see the city,' explains Robson. 'I got Barcelona's permission for him to travel over but he didn't want to do it. But now I've got to be happy because we've got Laurent Robert who is a very good player.' Robson would have liked to have brought in more than the mercurial Frenchman and the young striker from Coventry, Craig Bellamy, but that is all that finances would permit.
But as Ranieri points out, big money and big names are meaningless if they don't perform. He recalls being dubbed crazy for dropping Romario when he was at Valencia, but knows no other way than having the courage of his own convictions: 'Names don't work. If reputations were all that mattered I'd call Manchester United and say: "Eh! Bobby Charlton! Come back!" Or Nobby Stiles for the midfield - even better than Carragher! If I believe in a certain road, I go down it. If I get it in the neck, it's my neck. Every manager lives in this way.' That message, as Robson and Ranieri well know, is the same in any language.
