Auditioning for the title role

Claudio Ranieri’s life is a slow experiment. The Chelsea manager explores every possibility in his team selections but his career is his greatest adventure of all. This is a man always ready to wrap himself in a new country, a new identity.

With a certain fondness Italians took note of his change of haircut and different set of glasses for the Stamford Bridge stage, as if he were an actor submerging himself in an English role. Ranieri now aims to complete his greatest adaptation by turning himself into the manager of league champions and tomorrow’s match with Manchester United should be a progress report on the metamorphosis.

A natural shrewdness led him to latch on to the British love of eccentrics and his occasionally outlandish remarks are not all the
consequences of teething trouble with the language. He virtually wore out the gag about his alter ego Tinkerman. It is no slight on Ranieri to classify him as a calculating individual and that trait is essential to his employment in coaching, almost without interruption, since 1987. In Italy they think he has
merged into the Premiership cleverly by becoming a convert to a lustier, attacking style. The manager is courteous, yet there is a practical advantage to that quality even if it also reflects his underlying character. "We don't
have any disciplinary problems," said the chairman Ken Bates, who appointed him in September 2000. "The team are very disciplined and that comes from leadership from the top. When's the last time you heard him criticise a referee? When's the last time you heard him suggest he was temporarily blind? When's the last time you heard him slag off another opponent or manager?" Ranieri, as Bates implies, does not control only himself. He is of the old school who insists on complete command of the dressing room and is never deterred by the dread of making himself unpopular.
Only two footballers survive at Atletico Madrid from his sole floundering spell which ended, in March 2000, when he left a club whose relegation from the top division was all but confirmed. Yesterday, Carlos Aguilera and Santi Denia refused to talk about Ranieri on the grounds that their comments would only be hostile.
It is no part of the Chelsea manager's job description to ingratiate himself with the staff and any loyalty to him probably springs from the pragmatic bond of shared success rather than affection. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, while going through a period of estrangement at Stamford Bridge last season, gave a sniping interview. "I don't like it when, on the evening before a game, the manager storms into your hotel room and takes all the wires out of the TV set because he's afraid you'll be watching it all night," said the
forward.
Even those who are not at odds with the Italian in any way evoke a
degree of severity at Chelsea. "He's a very tough manager to work
with," said Damien Duff. "He makes it really intense for us every single
day in training. There is absolutely no let-up, whereas at Blackburn we
just had five-a-side kickabouts." Any Chelsea fan, of course, will
be delighted to hear of a ruthless culture that has unpampered
footballers gasping for breath. Ranieri is steeped in a native
culture that makes compatriots like Paolo Di Canio incensed by the
slightest levity in training sessions. The coach has a good reputation in
Italy. One thoughtful chronicler of the Serie A scene suggests that he
lives up to Machiavelli's precept for a prince by being both fox and lion.
There has been plenty of experience to tease out the cunning
and ferocity in him ever since he took charge of Campania in 1987.
The background probably explains why he seems so calm about Roman  Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea, even though it has led to an
assumption that he will be replaced by Sven-Goran Eriksson. The
Russian is benign compared with the president with whom Ranieri
contended at Fiorentina. After the coach had gone, Vittorio Cecchi
Gori eventually bankrupted both that great club and his own movie
production company. There is little left in football that can surprise Ranieri and his reaction to events is steady. The response was firm at the start of
this season when Chelsea were in the Czech Republic to face Sparta
Prague and reports surfaced over discontent from members of a
populous squad who resented being left out of the line-up. "This is a
new era for Chelsea," he said. "Whoever understands this rests
with us. If they don't understand, I'm sorry. Instead of being with us
they can rest in London." Alex Ferguson, naturally, has warm appreciation of a rival who knows his own mind. "I wouldn't have thought you could buy the title," the United manager said, "but the way Chelsea have started they
will definitely be up there and their manager has to take great credit for
it. It's not easy picking the right teams. We had a similar situation
here when we had Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer. You pick
the side and then you have to explain to the other two why they
aren't in." The excursions into diplomacy will not be regretted by Ranieri,
who has gathered a group of vast dimensions and deep talent, riches
he has not enjoyed before. With Valencia he put together a fine team
but it was Hector Cuper who put it to good use. He won cups in Italy and Spain, countries where cups are of minor interest. The Serie A
judgment holds that he is cut out for major clubs such as Fiorentina, who
have fallen on hard times. That endorsement must have endeared him to a then cash-strapped Chelsea. "We didn't sign any players (last year), other
than De Lucas, and we went from sixth to fourth to make it into the
Champions League," said Bates. Ranieri must, however, carry the
burden of fulfilled dreams now that Abramovich has let him do precisely as he wished in the transfer market. This, all the same, is far from a wholly romantic tale. Ranieri has to achieve success and, indeed, greatness if he is to keep his job. Very few men have ever been in such a situation and
there is certainly nothing in his past to prepare him for it. The task for
Ranieri is to build a mighty club, one rather like Manchester United.
"The difference between what Alex Ferguson has done and what I have
done is 17 years," he said. "If I am still here in 17 years it would be
fantastic to be like him. "What Alex Ferguson has with Roy Keane I maybe have in John Terry or Frank Lampard because they are young and, if I was here for 17 years, I would like them here." Since the latter will be a creaky 42 by 2020, the sentiment is not supposed to be taken literally. It is a
daydream through which the manager conveys his appreciation
of the expectations upon him. Ranieri has the money to buy stars, the resolve to maintain command of them and the intelligence for tactical battles. He possesses absolutely everything except an excuse for failure.