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Loyalty is lost in modern football

Eddy Bramley new author
Roar Rookie
27th February, 2017
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Leicester City's win was one for the underdogs. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Eddy Bramley new author
Roar Rookie
27th February, 2017
15

Last week saw the demise of a Premier League fan favourite.

Just nine months on from Leicester City’s heroic rise from relegation favourites to Premier League champions, the loveable Italian that is Claudio Ranieri has been sacked.

How is it that Ranieri – a manager who took a team that was almost relegated the season before his appointment to Premier League glory the year after – can be removed with such haste?

It’s a decision that has sparked controversy across the world of football and puts an end to the argument that loyalty still exists in the beautiful game.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Leicester have been very average of late. But what did the owners expect? That they were going to continue to fly high among the big spenders while spending their Premier League winnings on Ahmed Musa and Onyinye Ndidi?

The Foxes owners seem to have forgotten that their squad of players is decidedly average. Riyad Mahrez is a shadow of the player who was linked to Barcelona in the summer, Danny Drinkwater is having rings ran around him without his mate N’Golo Kante in midfield and Jamie Vardy is most certainly not having a party this season.

The owners have forgotten that it was Ranieri who got the best out of these players, who raised them up and gave them the confidence to go on and create history.

Leicester City coach Claudio Ranieri

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At the time of Ranieri’s termination they were still above the relegation zone and halfway through a Champions League round of sixteen tie, which they are still very much in thanks to a late Jamie Vardy goal in Seville.

At least give the poor guy a chance to see out the Champions League campaign that he orchestrated in the first place. Is a Premier League championship not even worth that?

And Leicester is not the only town in England where loyalty seems to be lost.

Arsene Wenger, who has composed what is arguably the greatest tenure in Arsenal football club’s history, looks as though he will be shown the door this summer.

Arsenal have been consistently hitting below the expectations of a club as good as Arsenal for many years. But again, people forget that it was Wenger that has crafted them to be a club of that stature in the first place.

The Arsenal fans treatment of Wenger has been down right disrespectful.

In the Gunners 3-1 loss to Chelsea two weeks ago, one fan held a banner reading ‘Enough is enough. Time to go’. Wenger Out chants and boos have been a regularity at the Emirates for seasons now.

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Claudio Ranieri was shown a similar sort of disrespect.

Obviously the Leicester board’s decision to sack Ranieri was a typically desperate tactic to avoid relegation. But replacing the manager who pulled off the greatest achievement in the clubs history is hardly a way to strike positivity through the club.

This is a time where Leicester’s owners needed loyalty. Instead, they pointed the finger and reacted instinctively when the chips were down.

With the level of expectation ever increasing and the unfathomable amount of money at stake Premier League managers are expected to perform.

Loyalty, however, far outweighs money. Successful managers deserve to be let go with the praise and dignity they deserve, not cast into the abyss like an unwanted toy when things get wobbly.

Loyalty is lacking in football and it’s slowly staining the game.

Thanks Claudio you sparked the imagination of football fans everywhere.

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