Neil Ashton: Leicester City flops who cost Claudio Ranieri his job deserve to lose their title medals
In the end the dressing room did for the genial Italian, who guided the Foxes to a 5,000-1 title last term: Player Power 1 Manager 0
THOSE greedy boys got their way in the end.
It is another victory for Leicester’s divisive dressing room, their egos swollen beyond belief after last season’s amazing title triumph.
Claudio Ranieri last night become the first manager to collect the world coach of the year award then suffer the ignominy of the sack the following season.
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In the end, the dressing room did for the genial Italian, who guided the Foxes to a 5,000-1 title last term.
Player Power 1, The Manager 0.
Nobody can take that magnificent achievement away from them.
But for one moment, when Leicester confirmed Ranieri was out of the King Power door, it was very easy to wish that upon them.
To strip them of their crown and remind them what it is like to be average Premier League Joes again.
Leicester’s players have made themselves look pretty stupid.
There are some bad apples in there, looking at the way the champions have slipped to 17th in the Premier League table. Shameful.
It was football’s greatest story. But this fairytale also has the saddest ending.
The players could have done the decent thing, strung a few results together and secured another season of top-flight football.
It is then, after their final game of the season against Bournemouth on May 21, that Ranieri could have made a dignified exit.
Instead, he is out on his ear, sacked by Leicester’s Thai owners after a 15-game run saw just two wins.
Even Jamie Vardy’s away goal in the 2-1 away defeat against Sevilla in the Champions League last-16 first-leg was not enough to save him.
What a way to go. That toxic dressing room has a lot to answer for.
The heroes of last season — Kasper Schmeichel, Robert Huth, Wes Morgan, Riyad Mahrez, Vardy and Co — should hang their heads in shame.
Some of those took the money last summer, cashing in on the title triumph to sign massive new contracts. They were loving life then. Mixing it with the big boys, swanning around California before the International Champions Cup tie against Paris Saint-Germain in July.
Then it was on to Stockholm to play Barcelona, just days before they were beaten in the Community Shield at Wembley by Manchester United.
Defeat at Hull, on the opening day of the season, was a warning.
This lot were the darlings of the Premier League last season, given a guard of honour by Chelsea’s players when they walked out at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season.
Now they are relegation battlers, a group of plodding Premier League footballers again.
And they will now be under the spotlight even more on Monday night when they host Liverpool.
True, Ranieri is not entirely blameless. His increasingly baffling decisions, from tactics to team selection, confused the players. There were rows, confrontations and moaning — just like at every other club.
The best dressing rooms, the ones with the strongest constitutions, police themselves. When there is trouble, they sort it . . . swiftly.
This lot let it slide and allowed Ranieri to take the rap for an embarrassing title defence.
They never really took to him, not if they are honest.
There were even rumbles from the dressing room last season that the eccentric Italian had very little input into their successful methods.
Still, it was Ranieri who abandoned their 3-5-2 system and went 4-4-2 in pre-season. Look what happened after that.
Still the moaning, the carping, never really went away. Not really.
Footballers being footballers, they will blame everybody but themselves.
The cracks came to the surface when Argentine striker Leonardo Ulloa went public after being denied a move to Sunderland during the January window.
Behind the scenes, there was lingering resentment among the office staff about the amount of money being thrown around.
Some of them have been there for decades, given a month’s bonus in their June pay packet after their incredible title triumph.
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Ranieri, rewarded with a lucrative new four-year contract last August, also earned a £5million bonus for winning the Premier League.
The ‘stars’, such as Vardy and Mahrez, agreed deals worth £100,000 a week to ward off interest from some of Europe's top clubs.
They have barely lifted a leg since.
Now they will have to do it for Craig Shakespeare, the highly-regarded coach sidelined by Ranieri in recent months. That was one of the Italian’s biggest errors.
When Ranieri started to take an increasing role on the training pitches, Shakespeare become marginalised.
He has been on the fringes, a diminishing dressing-room influence as Ranieri tried everything to motivate the players. Nothing worked.
Instead, they crashed out of the FA Cup at League One Millwall — who were down to ten men — and their Champions League adventure could come to an end on March 14.
They will have played Liverpool and Hull by then, with the club’s owners expecting a big reaction after taking this “painful” decision.
Whatever happened after that title win, Ranieri leaves with his head held high, his reputation and dignity intact.
Others certainly cannot say the same.