Ranieri has come full circle in Cagliari making Serie A and Premier League history | OneFootball

Having steered his beloved Cagliari to safety, the Tinkerman has decided to put away his tactics chart at a club level and Giancarlo Rinaldi reflects on the beautiful career of one of Italy’s finest coaches.

Just a few days after Max Allegri’s touchline histrionics and semi-striptease perhaps this was the perfect antidote. Claudio Ranieri saw off Sassuolo in a vital relegation clash before deciding to sign off from a managerial life which saw many more sardonic smiles than it did temper tantrums. He had burst the myth that nice guys always finish second a long time ago but keeping the Sardinian side in Serie A was a suitably stylish way to say goodbye.

That you don’t have to have been a great player to make a fine coach is a well-known fact and the butcher’s son from Rome was just another case in point. After failing to make the grade with his hometown club, he left the Giallorossi to enjoy spells as a defender with Catanzaro, Catania and Palermo. All decent clubs, no doubt, but not the kind of places that get on the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport too often.

His route into management, then, was always likely to be the old-fashioned one without his path being eased by a lofty playing reputation. Vigor Lamezia and Puteolana are the kind of places where you serve your apprenticeship before a bigger club comes calling. Young Ranieri – just in his mid-30s when he started coaching – would soon establish himself as a savvy operator.

It was the club he has just kept in Serie A – Cagliari – which first saw something it liked in the always dapper dresser and gave him his shot at the big time. He won the struggling island outfit back-to-back promotions from Serie C1 to Serie A and then secured their salvation in the top flight – just as he did this week. It was enough to see an even bigger fish snap him up.

A move to Napoli never quite delivered what both parties had hoped for, but when he switched to Fiorentina, he started to show that he could deliver silverware alongside attractive football. A Coppa Italia and an Italian Super Cup were nice recognitions of his abilities although, for some, there were still question marks about whether he had the ruthless streak necessary to become a serial winner.

It would dog him for much of his managerial life. More trophies followed in Spain with Valencia but his time with Chelsea in England would long be seen as symptomatic of his shortcomings. It was there that he became dubbed the Tinkerman for his regular changes of personnel. This was still a time – hard to think of it as it is – when foreign coaches were regarded with some distrust and occasional ridicule.

Ranieri took it all in good part and rarely rose to the bait as he set off trundling across Europe after leaving the Blues. After returning to Valencia he came back to Italy to manage a string of big clubs – Parma, Juventus, Roma and Inter – but it felt like maybe his moment had passed. The game was moving on and perhaps there was no more room for Claudio. Luckily for him – and for the Foxes – they thought differently in Leicester.

His name will be forever associated with one of European football’s most improbable league triumphs in recent years when he took his unfancied group of players to the pinnacle of the Premier League. He was the perfect man for the job as he constantly deflected the pressure away from his players and let them concentrate on delivering an achievement which will never be forgotten. It would be impossible to quantify just how many league titles with a giant his solitary crown with such a relatively small side was worth.

That love story ended and he went on his travels again – with mixed results – before the call of Sardinia drew him back again. He delivered another epic promotion and then, this season, salvation with all his customary calmness and aplomb. His feathers may get ruffled from time to time, but it never seems to take him long to smooth them down.

In the book, Hail Claudio!, Gabriele Marcotti describes the “passion without volume, enthusiasm without bluster, cosiness without overbearance, kindness without familiarity” which were the hallmarks of his approach. He has added an exit with impeccable timing to that list of qualities. There are not that many managers who genuinely felt like a pleasure to watch in post-match interviews, but Ranieri was certainly one.

It would take a hard heart not to feel affection for one of the elder statesmen of the game as he heads towards the last league game of his career. He won’t coach another club after Cagliari but left the door open for a national team. Fans across the football globe will surely wish the man well as he turns his back on the sport he gave so many special moments for the final time.