It was a pleasure to be in the room and listen to Ranieri impart his wisdom and wit and get to see a side of his personality that he perhaps doesn’t generally offer up to football journalists. Despite his impeccable manners and all-round decency, the impression that strongly came across is that Ranieri is a hugely motivated coach who is driven by his will to win. Even today you could tell that he is not basking in his and Leicester’s spectacular success. Instead, he is fully focused on next season and trying to make the bookmakers eat their words once again.
There were plenty of media in the room (and I hope some of them will write stories based on Ranieri’s quotes that are widely shared and read), but there was also no shortage of (mostly Italian) members of the public, from ages 7 to 70, all grateful for an audience with the reigning Premier League champion.
Italian football expert and author John Foot was posing the questions, before it was opened out to the floor for people to ask their own. Almost everything Ranieri said this evening was interesting. Below is a roundup of some of the many quotable things he said tonight.
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| Claudio Ranieri took questions from John Foot (right) at the Italian Cultural Institute |
On being given the chance to join Leicester and come back to England and the Premier League…
I was so happy, so pleased to come back to the UK and coach a Premier League team, especially after my experience with Greece. It was completely different there. I didn’t feel like a trainer. Coming back to the most beautiful championship in the world made me happy.
I had a great chemistry with the president straight away. We hoped not to suffer too much and to reach 40 points. The idea was that we would fight for two seasons. Then after that we would fight to qualify for the Europa League, and then finally we would fight for the Champions League. This was my plan.
On being asked when he first believed Leicester could win it…
When Hazard scored! [laughs] In all honesty, it was when we heard the final whistle. This is the truth.
On the magnitude of Leicester’s achievement and the good feeling it has generated…
Everyone was on our side – except for Tottenham. It was not a miracle, but it was pretty incredible. Only later will we be able to really tell this story. Now we are still too close; it’s like an erupting volcano.
On what makes this Leicester side special…
I had a great chemistry with the president straight away. We hoped not to suffer too much and to reach 40 points. The idea was that we would fight for two seasons. Then after that we would fight to qualify for the Europa League, and then finally we would fight for the Champions League. This was my plan.
On being asked when he first believed Leicester could win it…
When Hazard scored! [laughs] In all honesty, it was when we heard the final whistle. This is the truth.
On the magnitude of Leicester’s achievement and the good feeling it has generated…
Everyone was on our side – except for Tottenham. It was not a miracle, but it was pretty incredible. Only later will we be able to really tell this story. Now we are still too close; it’s like an erupting volcano.
On what makes this Leicester side special…
Normally not all 11 players ‘play’. A team is strong when at least eight play and three are dragged behind. We had all 11 playing every single match, with one idea – trying to win.
On his coaching methods at Leicester and whether he is a ‘quiet leader’…
It would have been difficult to get angry at Leicester this season! I would have to be really nasty to have got angry with them. I never told them off or made them feel guilty. Instead, we would analyse mistakes in training and try to correct them. I always tried to encourage. There was no blame. We tried to improve individuals and the team. This relaxed and united the squad.
On his coaching methods at Leicester and whether he is a ‘quiet leader’…
It would have been difficult to get angry at Leicester this season! I would have to be really nasty to have got angry with them. I never told them off or made them feel guilty. Instead, we would analyse mistakes in training and try to correct them. I always tried to encourage. There was no blame. We tried to improve individuals and the team. This relaxed and united the squad.
On the time he substituted Totti and De Rossi at half-time while managing Roma… and went on to win the game…
It’s lucky I won! Otherwise I would have been crucified outside the Stadio Olimpico.
On the mindset of Italian football fans…
We are more critical, more tactical. Here in England there is a cultural aspect that differs; people want to see a good game, the team winning and fighting to the end. In Italy, sometimes the whys and wherefores weigh too heavily on the players.
On those people – even among his friends – who said he was a loser because he always came second…
Any town in Italy breathes football. You have to win. I was very happy in my career but some friends thought I was a loser until a month ago. I have always pushed back against this. I always had a will to win a great championship. But now that I have done it, I am focused on trying to win the next one. My strength is that I have an honest, transparent relationship with my players. I am really sorry if some of them can’t always play, but they know that the common good is the team.
People said I was a loser, but those people forget the contexts in which I came second. I’m not a loser. I never felt like one. I believed in myself. I haven’t changed – the people judging me have changed.
On managing Gianfranco Zola at Chelsea…
By coming here, [Zola] has been [Italy’s] best ambassador. At Chelsea, when we got off the bus, even the opposition fans would clap Zola.
On whether having no superstars at Leicester made them easier to coach…
[In my career] I have trained everybody and anybody. I started with inter-regional football. It’s difficult to speak about the type of players you coach. It always depends on how the team goes – and so I can say that Leicester is wonderful and always full of sunshine!
On the bookies quoting pre-season odds of 5000/1 on Leicester to win the title…
The bookies were wrong. They said I would be the first to be kicked out [sic]. They made a mistake. It’s wonderful. I am sorry, though, for the fan who cashed out his bet [before the end of the season] – his son was in a wheelchair and the money was important. But some people did win, at least.
On the resilience of his Leicester team…
There were times when we were two goals down and we were able to come back and win 3-2. These changes in the wind gave strength to the group. I told my players, ‘I don’t care if you lose, but fight to the very last second’.
On being asked by a small kid in the audience how it felt to win the title…
I can’t explain. It’s a wonderful feeling; a moment of deep satisfaction. I saw many happy people. This is something I like. I’m happy that I was the person who could synergise this team. We could feel in the dressing room that the whole world wanted us to win. But it’s impossible to say [how it felt]. Happiness maybe? I don’t know! [Addressing the kid:] When you eat Nutella, how do you feel?!
On living in Leicester…
When I joined Leicester, I only knew the city from my time at Chelsea. I like to live within the city – I want to breathe what other people breathe. I tell the players that we are the representatives of the city of Leicester. I go to the supermarket with my wife and I push the trolley. I don’t like to hide.
A fruit and vegetable seller asked if I would sell fruit for him if we won the title – so now I’ll have to go and do it. Maybe I’ll go at 6am when there’s nobody there!
On whether he’ll change his methods next season…
I need to continue with these players in the same way. We are looking for new players, too. Psychologically, I don’t know… I need to feel it. After the first game last season, I told the players, ‘You’re so strong, but you don’t know just how strong you are’. You only see me when I’m playing with journalists but inside the changing room I am quite different.
On being asked by another kid: ‘Where did you get “dilly ding, dilly dong” from?’…
It comes from a long time ago. A former Cagliari player sent me a bell – I used to use it to say, ‘You’re getting it wrong… dilly ding, dilly dong! You’re sleeping! Wake up, you’re getting it wrong!”
On whether Leicester’s title win will usher in a new era and make football a ‘passion’ for people again…
No. This has been a bubble. This is unique and won’t change anything. People say maybe others can do what Leicester did? But a lot of money will be spent and only one team can win the league each season and the others will have lost a lot. It won’t change. Money governs everything. I really hope there won’t be a Super League or this will make things worse; the spirit of the game will disappear.
On coaching being a balancing act…
If we win, I bring the players down. If we lose, I bring them up. You can’t transmit any negative energy. You must keep the players away from pressure. It’s a balancing act for every coach to keep the windsurfer on the wave.
On his top three career experiences…
Cagliari, which was my springboard; Valencia, which was my first time abroad at the age of 47, where I learned another language and won a cup; and this one [Leicester].
On whether there is anything he misses from Italy, or any aspects of Italian football he would like to see introduced in England…
No. When I go to a country I want to enter into that country completely, to understand it. I think to myself: how can I be a part of this and improve what has been given to me? I just bring what I have accumulated over my years of experience.
On all the praise he is receiving in the weeks since Leicester won the title…
Things change. In two months these conversations will be ashes and I start from scratch. I’ll put my accolades to one side. We will have to fight to be in Europe – the minimum aim is the top 10. No team will buy me back now – I have no will to move.
On whether he’d want to coach the Italian national team…
The experience I had with Greece was not a positive one. With the Italian national team, maybe it would be governable [sic], but at the moment I feel the need too much to be out on the field every day. People ask if I’m stressed. No! I’m stressed when I don’t have a team to coach. I need this daily relationship. Maybe in 5, 6, 10 years [my feelings] may change. [At this point he glances at his wife in the audience.] My wife is shaking her head.
When asked if he has any advice to any managers of teams (not necessarily footballing or even sporting)…
Would it disappoint you if I said I don’t know? I know I have empathy with my players, but I don’t know how I do it. I am myself. This is the way I am. I am given a task by my president and this is the law to me. I left big teams more than once because this spell with my boss had been broken and so I could no longer lead my team.
On whether he would like to sign any Italian players for Leicester…
I never look at nationality or the colour of somebody’s skin. I see if they are integrated in our changing room. Depending on the country I’m coaching in I want an English ‘soul’, or a Spanish ‘soul’ – because those players are the pillars and others must adapt. If you take away that DNA then you lose something.
On the wider significance of Leicester’s Premier League win...
People falling in love with [Leicester’s win] is about something bigger. I could have been anybody, but people needed this in order to believe in the idea that we must never give up.
Note: Ranieri was speaking in Italian and a simultaneous translator was provided. As a non-Italian speaker, this service was necessary for me. While the translator did a superb job, in the event that any bilingual journalists write up any of Ranieri’s quotes with slightly different phrasing to that which I have used above, please assume that their version is more authentic to precisely what Ranieri said in his native tongue.
People falling in love with [Leicester’s win] is about something bigger. I could have been anybody, but people needed this in order to believe in the idea that we must never give up.
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| Ranieri: "I really hope there won’t be a Super League; the spirit of the game would disappear." [Photo: @iiclondra] |
