Dignified Claudio Ranieri shows Chelsea the way

As Jose Mourinho’s position becomes increasingly threatened, Chelsea could learn some lessons from former manager Claudio Ranieri.

Claudio Ranieri was Chelsea manager when Roman Abramovich took charge of the club in June 2003. It was immediately said that the Italian didn’t have a future at Stamford Bridge.

Ranieri, as he told me shortly afterwards, had no illusions about his future.

“I said to Trevor Birch (Chelsea’s former Chief Executive) ‘The new chairman means it’s time for me and you to go home,’ he explained at the time. “That is the way. When change happens, the boss wants his own men. There were always stories in the newspapers, but from the beginning, I said to myself: work hard, always try your best and don’t follow the rumours. And that’s exactly what I did.”

Ranieri was up against it from the start. He’d joined a club where Ken Bates was the main man.

“I only have good words for Bates,” said Ranieri. “He wrote in my contract that he could spend one week a year in my house in Siena. He went to my house the first year, but not the second year and he asked me for some money back! I couldn’t believe it.”

When Chelsea’s new boss Peter Kenyon said publicly that he had to win the league, the pressure was intense on the Italian.

“I had a good relationship with Peter Kenyon but I didn’t like his first interview when he said Chelsea had to win the league,” explained Ranieri to me in that interview. “I had never spoken about this with Roman. We only had an understanding that I was building a team.”

He did that and when the Chelsea axe seemed inevitable, people launched campaigns to keep him in England.

“It was an amazing period,” recalled Ranieri. “At the beginning the people at Chelsea said: ‘Who is this coach?’ After one or two years I started to speak a little more English and the people understood a little better who was Claudio Ranieri. At the end I achieved a good relationship with the Chelsea fans.”

But he was still fired and replaced by Jose Mourinho. Chelsea had been waiting for Ranieri to make a mistake. It came in the semi-final of the 2004 Champions League in Monaco.

“It was a gamble for me,” admitted Ranieri. “When I saw Monaco with ten men I was sure we could beat them. I decided to change a defender for a striker. That is not in the Italian philosophy but I wanted to win. We had two good chances to score but they scored twice and we lost the match. It was my mistake: 1-1 was good for us but sometimes you try to do something to change the game. You must also remember that we were 0-0 in Rome against Lazio. I made the change and we won 4-0.”

That day, Ranieri had heard that Abramovich and Kenyon had met Jose Mourinho’s representatives in Monte Carlo. Ranieri had taken Chelsea, a team which hadn’t won the league since 1955 to the Champions League semi-final and his bosses were meeting his replacement behind his back.

“That made me more determined,” explained Ranieri. “I knew they wanted Mourinho but the timing was very wrong. In that moment I say to myself, ‘I’m going to try even more to win this game.’ So I go too strong with the emotion. But this is my fault. It is my responsibility.”

Ranieri knew Mourinho from his Porto days. “They were a very well organised team, a great block. He tried to win in the right way and I think that he is trying to do the same with Chelsea. I spoke with him in Nyon at a meeting with UEFA. He is a good man. He didn’t ask me about Chelsea because every manager is different and they like to do things their own way. Our football is different. What is good for me may not be good for him.

“I had the opportunity to work with Abramovich for one year and it was fantastic, but all the time I was 99% certain that I would be leaving. I would have liked to continue but Roman decided to change. I can only say thank you to him for the opportunity he gave me.

“Of course I was lucky and I was building a great team. Roman is a wealthy man. We had played Manchester City and I needed to get back to London to fly to Rome so I asked Roman if I could go on his plane. He told me that he was going direct to Moscow but spoke with his pilot. Then he took me to Rome in his plane, a very big plane, before going to Moscow. That was very good.”

Ranieri was betrayed by Chelsea, but he retained his dignity. And he kept it long after our chat in Valencia a decade ago.

He recalled: “I was disappointed. I did not win the Premier League or Champions League last season, but something special happened in England when we played our last away match - at Manchester United. Before the game, when I was walking to the bench, and then again at the end the Manchester fans applaud me with real emotion. This is amazing. How the English people link with me is incredible. It was even more powerful in my last game at Chelsea. Maybe Peter Kenyon will never have that feeling.”

Chelsea and Mourinho were made for each other, ruthless, successful, men who’ll do what they need to win, even if it means putting noses out of joint, including each others. Abramovich never stays with the same manager long, Mourinho never stays at the same club for long.

But there’s another way to manage, to do it with dignity like Ranieri. Eleven years after he left Chelsea, the Italian is back in the Premier League with Leicester City and doing very well. They have lost only one of ten games and sit fifth – ten places higher than his old English club.