Claudio Ranieri's life is a slow experiment. The Chelsea manager explores every possibility in his team selections but his career is his greatest adventure of all. This is a person who is always ready to wrap himself in a new country, a new identity.
With a certain fondness Italians took note of his change of haircut and different set of glasses for the Stamford Bridge stage, as if he were an actor submerging himself in an English role. Ranieri now aims to complete his greatest piece of adaptation by turning himself into the manager of league champions and tomorrow's match with Manchester United should be a progress report on the metamorphosis.
A natural shrewdness led him to latch on to the British love of eccentrics and his occasionally outlandish remarks are not all the consequences of teething trouble with the language. He virtually wore out the gag about his alter ego Tinkerman. It is no slight on Ranieri to classify him as a calculating individual and that trait is essential to his employment in coaching, almost without interruption, since 1987. In Italy they think he has merged into the Premiership cleverly by becoming a convert to a lustier, attacking style.
The manager is courteous, yet there is a practical advantage to that quality even if it also reflects his underlying character. "We don't have any disciplinary problems," said the chairman Ken Bates, who appointed him in September 2000. "The team are very disciplined and that comes from leadership from the top. When's the last time you heard him criticise a referee? When's the last time you heard him suggest he was temporarily blind? When's the last time you heard him slag off another opponent or manager?"
Ranieri, as Bates implies, does not control only himself. He is of the old school who insists on complete command of the dressing room and he is never deterred by the dread of making himself unpopular.
Only two footballers survive at Atletico Madrid from his sole floundering spell which ended, in March 2000, when he left a club whose relegation from the top division was all but confirmed. Yesterday Carlos Aguilera and Santi Denia refused to talk about Ranieri on the grounds that their comments would only be hostile.
It is no part of the Chelsea manager's job description to ingratiate himself with the staff and any loyalty to him probably springs from the pragmatic bond of shared success rather than affection. Occasionally someone fails to bite back the surliness and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, while going through a period of estrangement at Stamford Bridge last season, gave a sniping interview.
"I don't like it when, on the evening before a game, the manager storms into your hotel room and takes all the wires out of the TV set because he's afraid you'll be watching it all night," said the forward. Having been bought by Ranieri for Atletico Madrid, Hasselbaink has had more opportunity than most to form a settled opinion.
Even those who are not at odds with the Italian in any way evoke a degree of severity at Chelsea. "He's a very tough manager to work with," said Damien Duff. "He makes it really intense for us every single day in training. There is absolutely no let-up, whereas at Blackburn we just had five-a-side kickabouts."
Any Chelsea fan, of course, will be delighted to hear of a ruthless culture that has unpampered footballers gasping for breath. Ranieri is steeped in a native culture that makes compatriots like Paolo Di Canio incensed by the slightest levity in training sessions. The coach has a good reputation in Italy. One thoughtful chronicler of the Serie A scene suggests that he lives up to Machiavelli's precept for a prince by being both fox and lion.
There has been plenty of experience to tease out the cunning and ferocity in him ever since he took charge of Campania in 1987. The background probably explains why he seems so calm about Roman Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea, even though it has led to an assumption that he will be replaced by Sven-Goran Eriksson. The Russian is benign compared with the president with whom Ranieri contended at Fiorentina. After the coach had gone, Vittorio Cecchi Gori eventually bankrupted both that great club and his own movie production company.
There is little left in football that can surprise Ranieri and his reaction to events is steady. The response was firm at the start of this season when Chelsea were in the Czech Republic to face Sparta Prague and reports surfaced over discontent from members of a populous squad who resented being left out of the line-up. "This is a new era for Chelsea," he said. "Whoever understands this rests with us. If they don't understand, I'm sorry. Instead of being with us they can rest in London."
Sir Alex Ferguson, naturally, has warm appreciation of a rival who knows his own mind. "I wouldn't have thought you could buy the title," the United manager said yesterday, "but the way Chelsea have started they will definitely be up there and their manager has to take great credit for it. It's not easy picking the right teams. We had a similar situation here when we had Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer. You pick the side and then you have to explain to the other two why they aren't in."
The necessary excursions into diplomacy will not be regretted by Ranieri, who has gathered a group of vast dimensions and deep talent. There had never been such a luxury for Ranieri. With Valencia he put together a fine team but it was Hector Cuper who put it to good use. He won cups in Italy and Spain, countries where cups are of minor interest. The Serie A judgment holds that he is actually cut out for major clubs such as Fiorentina, who have fallen on hard times.
That endorsement must have endeared him to a then cash-strapped Chelsea. "It wasn't a bad team last year," said Bates, "We didn't sign any players, other than De Lucas, and we went from sixth to fourth to make it into the Champions League." Ranieri must carry the burden of fulfilled dreams now that Abramovich has let him do precisely as he wished in the transfer market. "I think the favourites for the championship are always the champions, [United]. And then after that the runners-up, Arsenal. We want to fight up until the end. That is our dream. Why not?"
This, all the same, is far from being a wholly romantic tale. Ranieri has to achieve success and, indeed, greatness if he is to keep his job. Very few men have ever been in such a situation and there is certainly nothing in his past to prepare him for it. The task is to build a mighty club, one rather like Manchester United. "The difference between what Alex Ferguson has done and what I have done is 17 years," he said yesterday. "If I am still here in 17 years it would be fantastic to be like him.
"What Alex Ferguson has with Roy Keane I maybe have in John Terry or Frank Lampard because they are young and, if I was here for 17 years, I would like them here."
Since the latter will be a creaky 42 by 2020, the sentiment is not supposed to be taken literally. It is pure daydream through which the manager conveys his appreciation of the expectations upon him. Ranieri has the money to buy stars, the resolve to maintain command of them and the intelligence for tactical battles. He possesses absolutely everything except an excuse for failure.
Honours won by the heavyweights
CLAUDIO RANIERI
Cagliari: Serie C1 title 1989
Fiorentina: Serie B title 1994; Italian Cup 1996; Italian Supercup 1996
Valencia: Spanish Cup 1999
Chelsea record: P161, W87, L37, D37. Win ratio: 54%
SIR ALEX FERGUSON
Aberdeen: Scottish Premier League title 1980, 1984, 1985; Scottish Cup 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986; League Cup 1986; European Cup Winners' Cup 1983; European Super Cup 1983
Manchester United: Premiership title 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003; FA Cup 1990, 1994, 1996, 1999; League Cup 1992; Champions League 1999; European Cup Winners' Cup 1991; European Super Cup 1991; Inter-Continental Cup 1999
Manchester United record: P941, W531, L176, D234. Win ratio: 56.4%
ARSèNE WENGER
Monaco: French League title 1988; French Cup 1989
Grampus Eight: Japanese Cup 1996
Arsenal: Premiership title 1998, 2002; FA Cup 1998, 2002, 2003
Arsenal record
P401, W228, D100, L73. Win ratio: 56.8%
