With Inter moving quickly from relegation contenders to title challengers in the space of a few months, manager Claudio Ranieri must be given a huge chunk of credit for turning around the fortunes of the Nerazzurri. So here are our top five reasons as to why the ‘tinkerman’ is perfect for Il Biscione.
1. Claudio Ranieri is well known for his brilliance at getting teams out of trouble, he has clearly shown that with Parma in 2007 when he was called in to rescue the side from relegation by winning seven of sixteen games and ending in 12th position. Soon he was in charge of the Old Lady as they got back from Serie B in the season 2007-08 where he got them the third place in the table much better than both Ciro Ferrara and Luigi Del Neri who both secured seventh place for Juventus.
Then, after Luciano Spalletti resigned from coaching Roma after two straight defeats at the beginning of the season, Claudio Ranieri was appointed as the head coach for the team, hugely improving their performance. They ended second in the league only two points off Scudetto winners Inter. The Tinkerman’s heavenly gift was shown once more this season with the huge comeback for Inter from the relegation zone to get back to competing for the title.
2. Ranieri seems to be improving every season since his miserable unexpected results with Valencia. Since his return to Italy he helped Parma rescue a spot in Serie A, got Juventus a Champions League spot twice and lost a Coppa Italia final and the Scudetto in its last round with the Giallorossi. Will he take another step this season towards glory? Can he get his first Scudetto? Can the Tinkerman get his first Coppa Italia since 1996?
3. Ranieri is now on a six game winning streak with Inter, showing how much the former Roma coach turned the Serie A team’s mentality, as they are now only six points away from leaders Juventus. Ranieri is only two games away from reaching Jose Mourinho’s record back in 2008. While Mourinho got his eight game winning streak with three clean sheets the Tinkerman already topped that as he got five clean sheets in his last six wins conceding only a goal.
4. The Italian coach earlier in his career opened the way for the current Chelsea captain John Terry to take his first steps with the Blues, a same case was with Gaizka Mendieta and Miguel Angel Angulo in Valencia and lately El Principio of the Bianconeri Claudio Marchisio as he was shown the road to glory with Juventus in the Ranieri era. This explains the reason behind the success of a lot of Inter’s youth, with Ricardo Alvarez, Philippe Coutinho and Davide Marco Faraoni – especially the first who raised a lot of questions over his performances at the start of the season, but is now considered a crucial Nerazzurri weapon in midfield.
5. The role of the shrink! Claudio Ranieri had a huge psychological effect on the Inter players. The once ‘useless’ Yuto Nagatomo is now irreplaceable in Inter’s starting line-up as he scored and assisted twice in the Biscione’s last six wins. The player with Bidone d’Oro award last season has now hit back top form; El Principe Diego Milito is on fire scoring four and assisting once in his last three matches. The rest is history, as scoring fourteen and conceding one goal in six games is a record that speaks for itself.
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great work ramez i agree with you 100% forza inter
Excellent article Ramez. I’ve always thought that the Tinkerman is underrated, and that he would have had a much bigger trophy hall had he been given more time at his clubs. Was definitely on the right track to success at Chelsea, for example, and was unlucky to be replaced by one of the greatest managers of the modern era.
Thnx a lot David 🙂
Rory I’m a Chelsea fan and I remember his last season as a long as he didn’t get the 3 points of the game he received warnings of getting fired… I think he finally found himself with Inter