Leicester owners lose faith in manager’s ability to keep team in Premier League but many will be saddened by the decision and puzzled by its timing
It felt like a brutal decision to sack Claudio Ranieri, cruel in so many ways and also desperately sad in the context of everything that the Italian achieved last season, yet in the end it came down to the simple fact that Leicester City’s owners no longer had faith in the 65-year-old’s ability to keep the English champions in the Premier League.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of that argument – and as things stand Leicester are sliding towards the Championship – the bit that makes so little sense to anyone, including people at the club, is the bizarre timing. Ranieri was given the club’s “unwavering support” 16 days ago and less than 24 hours earlier had overseen a 2-1 defeat in Sevilla that, with a crucial away goal scored, opened the door to the possibility of Leicester qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
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