73 year old Claudio Ranieri has had a wide and varied professional managerial career down the years, and having proved his worth in the Italian Serie C with Cagliari, he went on to taste good success with numerous clubs like Fiorentina, Spanish La Liga side Valencia, Monaco and maybe his crowning glory, his spell in the English Premier League with Leicester City.
The Foxes went from the Great Escape and narrowly avoiding relegation to winning the 2015/16 title in a fairytale 12 months under the former Greek international gaffer, but having returned to Cagliari for the 2023/24 campaign he had then announced his retirement from club management after what was his 912th appearance in the dug out in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
A short six months later though he is back, and ‘The Tinker Man’ returns to the Stadio Olympico for the third time in his career looking to get AS Roma back on track after their Friedkin Group owners have cycled through yet another manager.
Much to the annoyance of many fans, club legend Daniele De Rossi was quickly dispensed with at the first wobble, and the less said about the ill fated 12 game spell of Croatian Ivan Juric is probably for the better. So back to Ranieri they go.
His first spell came back between 2009 and 2011 where his 84 games in charge saw 47 wins and 16 draws, and he returned again as an interim gaffer in March 2019 to see out the season – 12 games with six wins and four draws. His third spell is also on an interim basis until the end of the season, but the managerial role is only part of his duties this time. He has also taken on the role of advising their board on his very own future replacement come the summer, and he will then make the switch to a ‘senior executive role’ on the board.
Cagliari was one potential end to his varied 37 year, 18 club, managerial career, but returning now to his hometown club would be considered by many to be the icing on the cake.
With Roma linked again with former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini following his recent departure from the Saudi Arabian international team, it remains to be seen if he continues to feature as a future option, or whether Ranieri’s advice will ultimately steer them in an alternative direction now – but I Giallorossi have been well known to steal the headlines for quite a while now, and with another managerial search underway that does not look like changing anytime soon.
Given the love that still exists for Mr ‘Dilly ding, dilly dong’ in Leicester, no doubt Roma will have a few extra temporary fans as they see how their former gaffer gets on.