Claudio Ranieri
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Claudio Ranieri (born October 20, 1951 in Rome) is a former Italian football player and football manager.
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Playing career
As a player he played for Roma.
Managerial career
Campania
His first managerial position was at Campania, where he took charge in 1987. It was at Serie C club Cagliari that he made his name, getting them promoted to Serie A from the third division.
Fiorentina
After a brief spell at Napoli, he subsequently had success with Fiorentina. Winning the Italian Cup twice.
Valencia
He was the coach from 1997 to 1999 and guided Valencia to the Champions League and the Copa del Rey in 1997.
Atlético Madrid
Joined in 1999 and while manager at Atlético Madrid of Spain the club went into administration.
Chelsea
As manager of Chelsea from September 2000 to 31 May 2004, he worked hard to overcome the language barrier. When he arrived at the London club he could barely speak English; fortunately, the club had few English players at the time, and many players who could speak Italian and as a result they could translate for him. Ranieri's first season comprised of inconsistent results, with Chelsea scraping into sixth place and an UEFA Cup spot.
Ranieri worked hard to rebuild the Chelsea squad in the summer of 2001, signing Frank Lampard, Emmanuel Petit, William Gallas and Boudewijn Zenden for over £30million. Chelsea's league performance however did not improve much on the previous season, finishing 6th once again, but it is two noticeable if not successful cup runs and some run-ins with the law which left its mark in people's memories. Chelsea were defeated 2-0 by Arsenal in the FA Cup final and were knocked out in humiliating circumstances by Tottenham 6-3 over two matches in the Worthington Cup. Whilst off the pitch John Terry, the team's key central defender, was charged with affray, after he and team mates Frank Lampard, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jody Morris were fined by the club for rowdy behaviour in front of distressed American tourists in the aftermath of September the 11th. Then there was the European venture, in which Chelsea were left embarassed once more, losing 3-1 to minnows Hapoel Tel Aviv over two legs after six players refused to travel to Israel for security reasons.
By the summer of 2002 football's cash crisis had hit Chelsea hard and the only major signing was Spanish midfielder Enrique 'Quique' De Lucas on a free transfer from Espanyol. However the squad had gathered their experiences from the previous season and had gone to Christmas firmly placed in the top two. After then however loss of form and injuries hit a thin squad hard and league form dipped whilst Chelsea were once again knocked out of the FA Cup by Arsenal. Nevertheless Chelsea finished the season on a high, qualifying for the Champions League after beating Liverpool 2-1 on the last day of the season.
When Chelsea were taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003, Ranieri was given an unlimited transfer fund but also found his job under threat. Days after the takeover Mr. Abramovich was spotted meeting with England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, and these rumours would haunt Ranieri's season. He spent £120 million on players in the summer of 2003. These signings included Irish winger Damien Duff for a club record £17million, English youngsters Wayne Bridge, Joe Cole, Scott Parker and Glen Johnson, Argentinean pair Juan Sebastian 'Seba' Veron and Hernan Crespo, veteran Frenchman Claude Makelele and controversial Romanian star Adrian Mutu, who would be sacked 14 months later for taking cocaine. Although the heavy investment brought the best league result for the club in 49 years, finishing runners-up in the Premiership and falling in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League, it was not enough to satisfy many at the club, who expected immediate and overwhelming success. Ranieri's defenders noted that Chelsea finished behind the first team in more than a century to go unbeaten all season in England's top league (Arsenal), and that the second-place finish was sufficient to automatically qualify Chelsea for the extremely lucrative group phase of the Champions League, whilst Ranieri himself explained that it was difficult to mould so many new players into a team within a season and that he was 'satisfied' with his work for the season. His critics pointed to the manner in which Chelsea had gone out of the semi-finals of the Champions League, the infamous night in Monte Carlo where some bizarre substitutions cost Chelsea the game, the Blues lost 3-1 to Monaco of the French First League on the night and drew 2-2 in the return match, going out 5-3 on aggregate.
On May 31 2004, after almost a year of speculation, he was finally dismissed of his coaching duties at Chelsea, and his job went to the man of the moment, a certain Jose Mourinho, who had led unfashionable Porto of the Portuguese Superliga to successive European triumphs, picking up the UEFA Cup in 2003 and then its more glamorous cousin the Champions League in 2004, ironically beating Chelsea's conquerors in the semis, Monaco, all the while picking up two domestic league titles and a Portuguese Cup. Ranieri's time at Chelsea was filled with inconsistency and to this day supporters of Chelsea argue if he ultimately did more good than bad for their beloved club, whilst he left behind him a talented squad and shrewd signings such as those of Frank Lampard, Arjen Robben, Petr Cech, Claude Makelele, Damien Duff, William Gallas, Wayne Bridge etc., many still feel raw for the incosistent performances of the Ranieri era and the Monaco defeat.
Valencia
On 8 June 2004, he returned for a second stint as coach of Valencia on a two-year contract.
Picking up the pieces after Rafa Benitez, the manager who had led Valencia to the UEFA Cup and La Liga double the previous season, resigned and then promptly joined Liverpool. Ranieri made a series of signings from Serie A, spending the cash on Marco Di Vaio, Stefano Fiore, Bernardo Corradi and Emiliano Moretti. These four signings never really worked, after a bright start, in which the Mestalla outfit picked up 14 out of a possible 18 points, Valencia went into a slump from October, winning once in 7 games and was knocked out of the Champions League. After a brief revival Valencia went another 6 games without a win from mid-January. Apart from his four Italian signings Ranieri was criticised for not playing Argentinean playmaker Pablo Aimar and persistent changes to formations and tactics, something carried forward by him from his Chelsea days.
He was sacked on February 25 2005 after Valencia were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Steaua Bucharest. Valencia were sixth at the time of Ranieri's sacking.ja:クラウディオ・ラニエリ