Former Chelsea FC Manager Claudio Ranieri Back In Premier League

Former Chelsea FC manager Claudio Ranieri has found his way back to the Premier League. The Italian was hired by Leicester City after they parted ways with manager Nigel Pearson in what was quite a messy affair. Pearson helped Leicester avoid relegation last year with a late season push that few expected.

He made some shrewd signings in veteran Esteban Cambiasso and helped keep the squad from falling apart after a rocky start to the season that saw them occupy the drop zone for months on end. Pearson’s son was sacked from the club’s youth team after some indiscretions in Thailand and that was reportedly one of the many reasons for friction between the manager and board.

So after Pearson’s departure, in steps veteran manager Claudio Ranieri. He expressed how happy he was to be back in the Premeir League and said, as quoted in Sky Sports ( “I’m so glad to be here in a club with such a great tradition as Leicester City. I’ve worked at many great clubs in many top leagues but since I left Chelsea I have dreamt of another chance to work in the best league in the world again.”

Ranieri was last in the Premier League in 2004 as manager of Chelsea FC and was the last man to hold the job before Jose Mourinho took over and proclaimed himself the Special One. He bridged the gap as manager between the pre-Roman Abramovich days and the current era but was seen as a man incapable of managing a club with the stature that the new ownership envisioned.

The Blues reached the Champions League semifinals under his tutelage but it was his tinkering that their eventual exit to AS Monaco was blamed on. He was subsequently let go after the season and replaced by Mourinho who lead the Blues to a domestic double the following season.

Since leaving Chelsea in 2004, Ranieri has been a managerial nomad and has taken charge of teams in four European countries. He was the manager of Valencia, Parma, Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan, Monaco, and most recently the Greece national team in the past 11 years before finally making his way back to the Premier League.

He has yet to win a top-flight league but has helped Fiorentina and Monaco earn promotion from the lower leagues to the top flight and has a Copa Del Rey and a UEFA Intertoto Cup to his name from his stints at Valencia.

Chelsea FC fans have a complicated relationship with the Italian as they see him as the man who nurtured some of the club’s great talents in John Terry and Frank Lampard but some refuse to forgive for his tinkering against Monaco in the Champions League. Either way he should still get a positive ovation when Leicester City come to Stamford Bridge which is not until May 15^th.

Next: Chelsea FC: Radamel Falcao, Asmir Begovic? What's Missing At Stamford Bridge?

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