Leicester City getting rid of Claudio Ranieri now is hardly madness | Barney Ronay


Italian’s team won the title last season by being ruthless and clear-sighted so their manager’s exit with only 13 league games left makes sporting sense

Like all the best fairytales Leicester City’s title story came to an end on Thursday night with a bracing little touch of cruelty. This is usually the way of these things: poisoned apples, hungry wolves, the doomed gingerbread house. Or, as in this case, someone getting the chop.

And so farewell then, Claudio Ranieri. We’ll always have Leicester city centre on a muggy night in May. We’ll always have Robert Huth leaping above the floodlights to score at Spurs. Not to mention those oddly foggy memories of Riyad Mahrez sending Joe Hart and Martín Demichelis halfway to the Manchester velodrome with an insolent little swivel en route to a goal and a victory that gave the title pursuit an air of unstoppable ascent.

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