Louis van Gaal does not appear to have a great relationship with his Manchester United players.
Manuel Pellegrini too, not exactly vibing off his Manchester City charges.
Remi Garde and the Aston Villa players, Rafa Benitez and the human race the Newcastle squad, Roberto Martinez and his Everton team… the Premier League is littered with teams who show that a firm hand or dictatorial approach is not always the key to a successful team.
In the Daily Mail, Martin Samuel chastises Christian Fuchs and the Leicester players for drenching Claudio Ranieri in champagne during the course of their Premier League celebrations.
Imagine that, Leicester City players getting carried away as they celebrate that Premier League title everybody was predicting they would win back in August.
It is hard to argue with Samuel’s key point, namely no Manchester United player would ever dream of doing something like that to Alex Ferguson.
“Put it like this. They wouldn’t have done it to Sir Alex Ferguson or Fabio Capello, two of the names Ranieri drops in conversation when he talks about the greats of modern management,” writes Samuel.
True. Ranieri is also unlikely to get involved in a row over horse sperm that would result in the club he dedicated his life to being sold to a bunch of Americans who would saddle said club with all their debt.
He is also not the kind of guy who would effectively give up one of the sport’s most lucrative gigs in an entrenched defence of his allegedly racist captain, either.
Most football managers, like most dentists, road sweepers and sports journalists, are flawed human beings. There are very few of us perfect, in any walk of life.
Ferguson was a terrifyingly strict task master, by all accounts. Capello too, exuded an air of seriousness. Perhaps that was the persona Ranieri tried to affect in his earlier Premier League stint at Chelsea, or at Roma or at Juventus.
How did that work out for him?
Samuel suggests Ranieri’s raised hand to prevent Fuchs coming back for a second pass suggests a disciplinarian’s vein that could cost the Austrian later.
Maybe, or maybe he had just had enough champagne poured on his head.
If Fuchs thought Ranieri would react badly to his jape, you would like to think the full-back would have decided against drenching his boss in champagne. Kasper Schmeichel was in on the ruse too, and he has this season seemed like a voice of reason and maturity in the Leicester squad.
With his family living in America, Fuchs has talked about a second career as an NFL kicker – is it any wonder the joker in the Leicester pack wanted to have his own “Gatorade moment”?
In US sports the head coach is often drenched before the final is even over, as happened to the Denver Broncos’ Gary Kubiak at this year’s Super Bowl.
David Bentley tried something similar with Harry Redknapp when Tottenham secured a spot in the Champions League. Writing in his autobiography (as ghosted by Samuel) Redknapp voiced his disapproval.
“I thought Bentley and the other players — all the ones who couldn’t get in the team, incidentally — took a liberty. Would he have dumped a bucket of water on Sir Alex, had he been a player at United? He wouldn’t have lasted long if he did. It didn’t just make me look bad, it made the club look bad, too — undermined us when we had just taken a giant step to join the elite.”
I agree you shouldn’t let David Bentley and a bunch of Spurs reserves attack you on live television when you have secured fourth place in the table, but surely allowances should be made for a 5,000/1 trip to immortality.
Where should we draw the line? Is Schmeichel popping the trophy crown on Ranieri’s head too much? When are you having too much fun with your boss?
There was a telling moment from Craig Shakespeare on Saturday night. During the raucous King Power pitch celebrations, the Leicester assistant manager told Sky Sports how this group of player had never once had to be told to pick up the pace in training.
If anything they had to be told to rein it in.
First title in 132 years takes some explaining, so don't call it a fairytale https://t.co/WkghnZJX30
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 3, 2016
Ranieri quickly realised what it was he had with this group and worked with them – tweaking as he went but not wanting to upset the delicate chemistry he had inherited.
This goes beyond team spirit and bonding, this is the art of management.
It was this atmosphere that delivered Leicester a first title in 132 years and it was this atmosphere that led Fuchs to tip a magnum over Ranieri’s head.
Maybe Ranieri’s suit got sticky and maybe he did not feel particularly suave at that precise moment, but a disciplinarian’s reaction now would be more harmful to this squad’s spirit than a €100million bid from Real Madrid for Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante.
Not everyone is an Alex, a Fabio or a Harry.
Some people get to work for Claudio Ranieri. And if that isn’t worthy of a glass of bubbles than nothing is.
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