Football

Premier League winning managers since 2012:

Mancini - sacked
Sir Alex - retired
Pellegrini - sacked
Mourinho - sacked
Ranieri - sacked

And Wenger goes marching on ....

Disgraceful treatment of Ranieri.

Everyone banging on about this being "disgraceful", a "betrayal", etc. No one said that about Chelsea sacking Mourinho last season, and they weren't doing nearly as badly as we are. The only difference is that Ranieri's a nice guy, for whom everyone has a soft spot.

He inherited a squad (Pearson's) on the best run of form in the Premier League from the season before and worked a proverbial miracle with them last season. That put Leicester in the best position in their history to cement their position as a top flight team - good owners, money, profile, a good squad to build on. And he fucked it up...

He spunked money - Musa £16m, Mendy £13m, Slimani £29m - none of whom look remotely good enough. Yet players with great potential, who are already delivering when they get a chance - Gray, Kaputska - are regularly ignored. It was obvious in the January window that Huth and Morgan are shot, yet he doesn't bring in cover and has only played the far more competent Benalouane in cup games against lower league teams, and sticks Amartey at right back now and again. Ndidi looks like the only decent decision he's made in 9 months.

Yes we lost Kante, the best player in the league last year by a mile (not so much this year), and that's been the excuse offered up week after week. Walsh to Everton was a bigger loss and we might have operated better in the transfer market if we still had him. Ranieri "lost the dressing room" apparently, because the players saw through him. That's the way it works, it seems.

We're one point above the bottom three and we're supposed to keep a manager who's shown week after week that he has no idea how to turn things around? Why? Out of sentimentality and loyalty?

Always a ride with Leicester, in the last ten years my son and I have seen relegation to league one, winning league one at a stroll, a couple of championship play offs (including the most dramatic exit against Watford), completely dominating the championship the following year, the greatest "escape" in premier league history, the most remarkable premier league win, champions league football... It's more than most on here will experience in their lifetime. I wouldn't mind a season of mid-table mediocrity once in a while, though - but that would make us Everton, or West Brom...

Apologies, I appear to have gone all Corny. Although this wasn't printed in the Guardian first.

This guy really is vile. Total bottle job

Thought we'd do enough to win the game when Wanyama got the equalizer.
the Alli sending off made it hard for us, even though we still dominated the game with 10 men.
Son came on, had an impact out on the left, and then kept drifting inside into an already congested area, when we need him to keep out wide and take on his man...
Should have gone through, upset that we didn't, must do better in the FA Cup..

Corney dear chap. Spurs were undone by their lack of discipline and deservedly so. It is an aspect of The Sheriff's management that is not working. All very Spursy.

It's just entertainment right?

Ranieri has a difficult managment style which can easily distance players. At Chelsea, he didn't tell them who was playing until the teamsheet was delivered an hour before kick off, a trait that really destabilised players. All fine if he is winning, but not so when he is not.

I can't think of a player who has contributed more than Kante so far this season.

So Spurs "difficult second album" is just a remix of the first?

Mostly

Mostly.

"Sheets I have made wet"
"Late tackle part 4"
"Overeliant"

On Wednesday night, Gray had been told he was playing, right up until the warm up, when he found out he wasn't. Our players have hardly showered themselves in glory this season, but they they're not sure from one game to another what formation they will be playing.

You could be right about Kante this season, I haven't seen so much of him. He was so effective last season because he allowed us to play 442 week in, week out, by breaking play up and quickly launching counters.

Is Kante really playing at a lower level his year? Third in tackles and appears to have opened up the midfield for Hazard. And he's played nearly every minute for the club at the top of the table, once again. Not a coincidence, surely.

In hindsight, wouldn't most Leicester fans prefer to have kept Kante than Vardy or Marhez?

think I preferred when you were going through your estrangement from social media...

And he allows us to play 3-4-3 which gives much more space to Hazard and Pedro and relieves them of defensive duties.

He has apparently made more tackles in the Premier League since he arrived than any player in the past three years. He has been here less than two.

He will probably get Chelsea's Player of the Season, which is quite an achievement when up against a revived Costa, Hazard and Azpilecueta.

Quite probably, but Vardy and Mahrez didn't have a release clause.

Yeah, understood. I was merely referring to the climate of panic that surrounded Vardy's potential departure compared to the lack of outcry over Kante's move to Chelsea.

Either way, best of luck. At least Crystal Palace are shitting the bed with Allardyce.

I know what you mean. I think fans were resigned to Kante going, because of the release clause and he had always implied he was using Leicester as a stepping stone. Plus, we got no end of grief from Gooners last season, so the thought of Vardy and Mahrez going there was unimaginable! Chelsea fans, on the other hand, were pretty respectful - probably because of the Ranieri link and the fact they were never in the title race.

I'm just hoping there are three teams worse than us this season, but I'm not confident. We could be in the bottom three tomorrow, with Liverpool to play on Monday...

just put two banks of 4 on the edge of the box and hit the ball long to vardy ... you'll be fine

I have my fingers crossed for you, Sunderland, Hull and Boro to go down. Even though I like what Marco Silva is doing at Hull. Out of the bottom 7 I'd like to see Palace and Leicester stay up, don't care much about the rest.

Bobby Mancini on his way?

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I have no preferences for who gets relegated, unless of course there is a chance that Tottenham or Arsenal (or ManU, Citeh or Liverpool) have the chance to drop.

I blame Storm Doris for all of this

That's where the money's going at the moment. Normally, I'd be happy with that, but Mancini in a relegation fight or the Championship?!