We should not be shocked by Leicester revival after Claudio Ranieri's departure

It would, of course, have been pleasant had Claudio Ranieri been able to leave Leicester City on his own terms. He achieved such a special victory with them last season, and the fans and city will forever be grateful to him. Because of this, it feels like they have been cheated of a pleasant goodbye, the one that few managers ever get. Only Alex Ferguson comes to mind for managers who were able to exit without aggravation or dispute. Ranieri didn’t manage it, but it seems that the reaction to his dismissal has gone somewhat over the top.

That’s to be expected. This is football, and nobody is expected to be rational, even if that’s what they’re being paid for. But it isn’t as if the owners took a ridiculous decision to remove him. Let’s consider the reasons they might have used to justify their actions.

None of the signings that arrived in the summer have worked. All of them, on the face of it, were reasonable buys. Ranieri, and everyone else, can be disappointed that they have disappointed. Ahmed Musa and Islam Slimani theoretically could have improved the attack and added depth, but they have yet to come good. Nampalys Mendy has only managed four games, due to injury. Wilfred Ndidi looks promising, but he, like Molla Wague, did not arrive at the club until the most recent transfer window. Bartosz Kapustka was signed, openly, as one for the future.

Ranieri can only reasonably take the blame for Musa and Slimani, but they are the most crucial failures. Where Leicester were incisive last season, they are blunt and predictable not, and either jaded or fatigued. It was up to Ranieri to give Leicester more ways to goal (though not to abandon last season’s methods entirely). Unfortunately for Leicester, he failed to do so. A team that cannot be confident of scoring can no longer play as Leicester did last season, until the final minutes, just as a team defending against them won’t need to panic.

Ranieri and the club achieved something that appeared significant when they managed to keep hold of most of their best players. N’Golo Kante left for Chelsea, but they retained Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy. Nobody expected them to be able to take on the challenges of the Champions League and also repeat a title challenge. But, having proven to his players what both he and they were capable of, they should have aimed for a top-half finish, given they had admittedly spent relatively little on the side over the past few years.

READ MORE: Vardy at the double in reminder of Ranieri’s glory

Where Ranieri failed most importantly was that players who won the Premier League last season, failed to even come close to their best again. Some drop-off might have been expected, maybe, but the best players and managers want to repeat triumphs, they don’t want to live off the glory of a single season. Ranieri cannot change the fundamental personalities of the squad, but it is still his responsibility if the players will no longer commit to his approach. What is odd is that there were no meaningful grumbles coming out through the press, it just seemed as if the players no longer cared enough.

Now, people have been quick to turn on Leicester’s players. It appears they have done so with some justification, too. When someone is paid an extraordinary amount of money, in a job that many envy, it is hard to understand why they would suddenly return to their old, mediocre ways. But they are still humans. Repetitive tasks are dull. Having obligations to turn up somewhere are horrendous if they are always at the same place. Your colleagues can be supremely annoying.

Sometimes, you just want something new. Ferguson was a genius at giving players something novel, changing his staff, and cutting out those who became stale. Jose Mourinho seems unable to charge players up for longer than two seasons. Arsene Wenger is happy for the same mistakes to take place every single weekend. It is a manager’s job to counteract any ennui. It is his responsibility to make sure that what can be changed is, and to his players’ benefit, and it is also his job to make sure what is essential is preserved.

Ranieri didn’t manage it, for whatever reason. Instead, he watched as his players went from being more than the some of their parts, to a weekly disappointment in the league. Now, this is purely speculation, but it is worth remembering that while it all fell apart there, they managed to qualify for the knockout stages with exceptional calm. They didn’t just play mugs, either, and dealt ably with Porto when they played them.

Similarly, when it came to Sevilla, at first they seemed befuddled and ready to turn over, but they staged a spirited fightback in the second half. It wasn’t the Leicester of last season, but it was much closer to that than we had seen before. Perhaps the drudgery of the league was of no interest given they knew they could not repeat a miracle, but the novelty of European competition somehow lifted them again.

The key thing then, is that as unfair as it might have been for the players not to maintain their performance level, it was Ranieri’s job to make sure they did. Whatever the players said when they were consulted about Ranieri’s future, they clearly weren’t convincing that this was the man who could save them. It might be that nobody can, now, and that there is no way this group of players can turn things around. But what were the owners suppose to do – stick with a manager who definitely couldn’t fix things, or at least try to find someone who could?