End of Ranieri era…. was he so bad??

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Claudio Ranieri was officially sacked this week by the Juventus management after a run of bad games. He was much maligned among Juventus fans and a favourite of Inter and AC Milan fans. I could see a spontaneous reaction of satisfaction among all tifosi alike. This stirred me to think, was Ranieri so bad..??

After a round of deep introspection I realized that he doesn’t deserve the criticism that he gets. There are many examples to prove so.

CV

Claudio Ranieri had coached Valencia and Chelsea (the only major clubs he had previously coached). Even though he was sacked from both the clubs he was responsible in forming the basis of a major club by unearthing talents like Mendieta, Miguel Angel Angulo, Claudio Lopez & David Albelda in Valencia and Lampard, Petit, Joe Cole, John Terry and Robben in Chelsea.

Tactical

The biggest contribution of Ranieri was converting Giorgio Chiellini into a center-back. The usual Left-Back played as a Center-Back as a part time to the injured Jorge Andrade; and to everyone awe, fulfilled his position fantastically. To add to this, he grew up to become one of the finest defender not alone in Italy but also in Europe. Moreover, Nicola Legrottaglie also got a chance in his era and he played the best season of his life after his horrendous entry into Juve back in 2003.

Alessandro Del Piero also got a chance under Ranieri’s system and as everyone knows, he rolled back into his early years and won the capocannonieri crown.

Fabio Capello had ignored both Chiellini and Del Piero during his time at Juve.

Team Stability

I remember, when Juve got promoted into Serie-a, players like Buffon were unsure of their stay. Buffon had quoted that he had a 49% chance of leaving as he was unsure of the club’s future. But the arrival of Ranieri made his change his mind. Players like Trezeguet who were on the brink of exit were made to stay. Both Trezeguet and Buffon played a pivotal role in Juventus’ upcome next term.

Results

Well in football all that matters is the results, and Ranieri had achieved that in his first season. Never losing to the top 3 and defeating Roma twice and AC Milan are things you cannot ignore. A honorable 3rd place where Juve were competing for title for more than majority of the season are awe-catching points.

Youth

Under Capello and Lippi, Juventus never saw a major player growing from their youth academy. But under Ranieri one can see some of the freshest talent in the form of Marchiso, Giovinco, De Ceglie et al. coming forward. Even though Ranieri has been blamed for lack of opportunities given to them, they have had more opportunities than their predecessors had.

Sporting Director Secco

Perhaps only Secco is the closest competitors of the fan ‘unfavourite’ title to Ranieri, with horrendous transfers in the form of Boumsong (a season ago), Tiago, Almiron, Andrade; Ranieri had no options but to feild them. Even though Sissoko and Amauri turned out to be decent transfers they didn’t change the world at Juve.

One may think that I am an agent of Ranieri out to soften the hard stand by the Juventini’s but don’t be mistaken..!!

Ranieri’s bad contributions overshadow his good work. Nobody can forget his horrible substitutions, foolish post-match comments and most importantly his bad streaks due to inconsistency, which is a must-not in today’s game.

I conclude that Ranieri was never the Juventus-material. But he doesn’t deserve the treatment of getting a mid-season sack, a fact which never occurred in the history of the club.

So, was Ranieri so bad ???

Comments

Unknown said…
F##K YES HE Deserved To Get Sacked!
May 24, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Rinaldo said…
Good article. No doubt Ranieri did a fine job taking a team from Serie B and turning it into a competitive squad for the CL. However, that being said, he isn't a coach to win trophies. Ranieri would never risk a loss in order to win; he'd be happy with a draw. That isn't what Juve needs now. With only a win against both Siena and Lazio to be sure of automatic CL qualification, our management had no choice but to sack Ranieri.
May 25, 2009 at 7:22 AM
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