Dilly-ding dilly-dong man unable to retrieve the magic from his well-travelled suitcase but Fulham should have known relegation battles are not the Italian’s forteClaudio Ranieri will always be remembered with affection in England – his 2016 title win with Leicester was by some distance the greatest against-the-odds triumph the Premier League has witnessed – though a manager who has made 18 exits in five countries ought to know better than most that fairytales happen only once in a lifetime.There was no dilly-ding dilly-dong at Fulham, just the relegation clock ticking away in the background. The pizza-based incentives that supposedly came in handy at Leicester never really surfaced in London; with three wins in 17 games in all competitions there was...
All too often the very manager who brought success is the one who makes way at the first bump in the roadThe fact we had entered November and not seen a single manager sacked in the Premier League made for a refreshing change. All too often, dismissals are made in a panic and without the long-term good of the club in question taken into proper consideration. This season it appeared a sense of calm and rational thinking had taken over. All managers seem to have been given time.That was until Wednesday, however, when Fulham sacked Slavisa Jokanovic and immediately announced Claudio Ranieri as his successor. Unfortunately, normal service has been resumed. Related: Fulham appoint Claudio Ranieri as manager after sacking...
Whether results are good or bad, we fixate on the idea that managers are accountable for what happens on the pitch. But how much can they really change after the whistle blows?This weekend, in keeping with most others, a much-scrutinised if seldom enlightening ritual will have been enacted once more: the post-match managerial interview. It’s a strange phenomenon, if you think about it, but coverage of a football match without quizzing the manager at the end would now seem as unnatural as the police not questioning the prime suspect in a crime.It has become an integral part of the mechanism that bestows upon managers a position somewhere between a god and a fool, depending on the result. But once a...
Lyon top the table after Ligue 1’s first match day after a 4-0 win over Strasbourg – an emphatic validation for their reconfigured attackBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsIt seemed too familiar for Lyon in the early going, even if the faces were different. Nabil Fékir is flagged offside, Mariano Díaz finds himself in a good position but shoots straight into the hands of the Strasbourg goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara, and Memphis Depay, hugging the touchline, foolishly concedes a throw-in. Fékir and Lyon’s three other attackers, Depay, Díaz and Bertrand Traoré, looked set to dazzle without any end product, their skill on the ball for nought as they struggled to break down a side who looked...
The 2016-17 season still had its drama – moments of brilliance and booming narrative arcs to be resolved – but it was less title race than well-ordered title jogFarewell, then, to the year that almost was. This was a Premier League season that sparked with a controlled excitement, never quite caught fire but still dished up another digestible slice of high-end product.Things kept on almost happening. Leicester City almost completed the most dramatic title-plus-relegation act of all time. But then it was all sort of OK. Marco Silva almost pulled off a minor managerial miracle – but somehow not quite. To great fanfare Tottenham Hotspur pulled to within one victory of being quite close to creeping up on Chelsea’s shoulder at...