The football calendar has its cycles, but Claudio Ranieri's Chelsea are not going round in circles. He was prepared yesterday to recall his first day in charge, against Manchester United in September 2000, but only so that he could stress how much had changed. Although the head coach would settle for another 3-3 draw, any achievement will belong to a team who have been overhauled.
"That team was full of champions," said Ranieri. "It is no good comparing a team that won everything except the league title with a young team that is trying to do something, but I am very pleased with our consistency." He seems in good humour, ever willing to develop his English with word play and light mischief.
Charlton's plea that last week's defeat at Stamford Bridge should be declared null and void because of the grassless pitch had Ranieri commenting, tartly, that the surface was worse for his men because they are more used to having the ball on the ground. That sally will not make him any friends at the Valley but shows how at home he now feels. As he has grown in the job, so the revolution has gathered pace.
Popularity
With Chelsea in third, the supporters are closer than ever to unanimity in backing him. They always appreciated that his arrival marked a turning point. Before him, Chelsea had gained instant prestige by signing some of the most famous names in football and Stamford Bridge was dipped in glamour, with Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli appointed in turn as player-managers.
"We went for short-term fix that paid off with the most successful era in the club's history and it put us on the European map," said Colin Hutchinson, who was then Chelsea's managing director. "But we always knew that, at some time, we would have to get the average age of the squad down. Claudio had a track record of being prepared to work with youngsters."
While in Spain, Ranieri reconstructed the Valencia team and led them, in 1999, to qualification for the Champions League. He ditched Romario, Brazilian centre-forward and sybarite, to present Claudio Lopez with his opportunity. Gaizka Mendieta was also nurtured. "I've never seen a player improve so quickly," said Roberto, a former Valencia star.
The transformations at Stamford Bridge have not been of quite that order, but players such as John Terry have come to the fore and there is a cosmopolitan group of promising teenagers at the club, whose members include Robert Huth, the German defender, and Felipe Oliveira, a Portuguese midfielder.
Man management
Acclaimed though he was for the signing of William Gallas, Ranieri's touch has been less sure in the transfer market. Frank Lampard appears settled now, but Chelsea could not expect to recoup his £11m fee if he were to be sold. Boudewijn Zenden, Jesper Gronkjaer and Emmanuel Petit do not seem, either, to have expanded the side appreciably.
The growth has been most impressive in attitude and professionalism. "He took Chelsea up a level because he had so much experience," said Roberto di Matteo. The midfielder, who retired because of injury last year, refers to every aspect from the measurement of individuals' fitness to judgments about form.
"He's got a ready smile but beneath it there is steel," said Hutchinson. A more resilient line-up has emerged during Ranieri's tenure. It took him almost six months before Chelsea won a Premiership match at someone else's ground, but results such as the 3-0 rout of Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the spring of 2001 ensued. Chelsea won by the same margin at Old Trafford last season. At present, only Arsenal have a superior away record.
Personality
In Di Matteo's view, Ranieri is more than a martinet. "He certainly stepped up the discipline at Chelsea, but first of all he is fair." Di Matteo, with his hopes of a comeback at an end, was given the symbolic duty of leading out Chelsea for last year's FA Cup final. "That wasn't about management," he said. "It was such a human thing. How many people would do that?" Hospitality is still extended to the former midfielder at the Harlington training ground. "Every now and again I turn up and have the pleasure of running with the team for half an hour. It is very kind and generous of the coach to let me do that."
As his English has progressed, the nuances of Ranieri's personality have been more apparent. Hutchinson points to the impressive achievement of Ranieri in learning the language while attending to his many other duties. The head coach's intelligence is beyond argument, but the critics wonder if he is too clever for his own good.
Tactics
Making a joke of the complaint that he cannot leave well alone, Ranieri calls him self "the tinker man". There are schemes aplenty in a lively mind. "It used to be one of the highlights of the week when he would come in and play around with formations on a piece of paper," said Hutchinson. The tactical liveliness was a factor that intrigued the managing director long before Ranieri was brought to the club.
The idiosyncratic casting of players in odd roles used to exasperate fans, but it is in Ranieri's nature to adjust to circumstances rather than stick to one sturdy scheme. "He reads games," said Di Matteo. "If, for example, he sees that one of the opposition players is under pressure, he might put on another striker to put him under even more pressure."
Now that Ranieri knows his men better, though, there is usually stability to Chelsea's methods. With little or no money available, he has been able to halt the countdown he initiated in saying that he would consider himself a failure if Chelsea were not champions after he had been at Stamford Bridge for three years.
Few expect the title this season, but if Chelsea continue to grow stronger the demand for a Premiership title will be louder once again.
