Ranieri appointed Juventus coach

SOCCER:Claudio Ranieri, the Italian coach who enjoyed a successful spell with Chelsea between 2000 and 2004, has been appointed coach of Turin-based Juventus.

Ranieri thus has the delicate task of guiding Juventus through a difficult season which sees them back in Serie A after they were forcibly relegated to Serie B this season by way of punishment for their prominent role in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal of last summer.

Ranieri's appointment comes as some surprise because, a week ago, he had seemed poised to sign for Manchester City. He attended England's friendly with Brazil last Friday as "cover" for negotiations with representatives of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister whose interest in buying City moved a step closer last night.

Spurred on by the realisation Ranieri had a real alternative offer on hand, Juventus moved quickly to fill a void left by the surprise resignation of Didier Deschamps, who guided the club to a Serie B title win this season. When Deschamps and the Juventus board found themselves unable to agree on plans regarding transfer signings and seasonal objectives, the Frenchman opted to resign just 10 days ago.

Sources close to Deschamps suggest his resignation was prompted by fears the club would not be competitive enough for next season in Serie A and that, consequently, the blame for a poor season would fall on him.

In the immediate aftermath of Deschamps' resignation, Juventus made it known they would dearly like to have Italian World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi back at the helm. Lippi enjoyed two successful spells at Juventus (1994-99, 2001-2004).

The World Cup winner, however, is still enjoying a "sabbatical" after Italy's win in Germany last summer, while he is reportedly loath to return to coaching at the moment, given his son Davide is under investigation for his role in the GEA player agency allegedly controlled by the former, disgraced Juventus director Luciano Moggi.

When Lippi made it clear he would not return to the fray just yet, Juventus began an urgent search which ended up focusing on Ranieri and the former Juventus and Chelsea player, Gianluca Vialli, nowadays a TV pundit for Sky Italia. In the end, the fact Ranieri was willing to settle for a three-year contract, worth just under €1 million after tax per season, may have swung it as Vialli is reported to have asked for exactly twice that amount.

Hugely experienced, having coached Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia and Atletico Madrid as well as Chelsea, Ranieri will perhaps be remembered to the London club's fans as "Mr Tinkerman", the coach who was always changing his line-up. With Chelsea, his best results were a second place Premiership finish and a Champions League semi-final defeat by French side Monaco in the 2003-2004 season.

Since being offloaded in 2004 by Chelsea owner, millionaire Roman Abramovich, to make way for Jose Mourinho, Ranieri has been largely on the sidelines, out of work for almost two years after a second, brief and unsuccessful term at Valencia. He returned to Serie A action in February this year when he took over relegation-threatened Parma, picking up 27 points in 16 matches and guiding the club to a safe 12th place finish.

Meanwhile, Liverpool's England duo Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have signed new contracts with the club. Club captain Gerrard and vice-skipper Carragher have signed deals which extend their stay at Anfield until at least 2011.

"I am very pleased," Carragher said. "Obviously we are both local lads and I've always said I wanted to stay here for the rest of my career. Hopefully I've got one more (contract) left in me that will take me until the end of my career. I have signed for four years and hopefully I can still be a regular in the team."

Gerrard added: "I'm really pleased too. The negotiations have gone really smoothly. Although they have been spoken about for a couple of weeks, I think it's happened pretty quickly."

Bolton Wanderers hope to sign the Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse on loan in a move that could pave the way for Nicolas Anelka to leave the Reebok in search of Champions League football. The Wanderers chairman, Phil Gartside, stated publicly yesterday he would resist bids for Anelka after Manchester United sought clarification on the striker's availability last month.

However, manager Sammy Lee is concerned Anelka may be tempted away by a club, in England or abroad, who are competing in next season's European Cup. With that in mind, he is preparing to turn his attentions to Cisse.