Remembering Ranieri’s four-game reign as Greece boss
Claudio Ranieri has been back in the headlines of late, with Premier League side Watford taking the decision to part with the Italian as their manager after just 14 games at the helm. After being appointed in early October, by January 24th, his services were no longer required.
The Hornets believe that they were backed into a corner, again, with a side that has adopted a revolving door policy when it comes to coaching appointments. They're painfully aware that they have become stuck in a rut that could see a relegation trapdoor swing open below them.
Ranieri was unable to turn the tide after succeeding Xisco Munoz at Vicarage Road, with reins now passed to former England boss Roy Hodgson. As it stands, there's been a great deal of uproar and anxiety among the club's fans and the bookmakers have noted the volatility of the constant management changes, as reflected by the fact that betting sites like Space Casino price Watford at 29/100 for another tumble into the Championship.
Claudio Ranieri lasted just 112 days as Watford manager 😳 pic.twitter.com/rlFyikXBBk
— GOAL (@goal) January 24, 2022
Interested observers in Greece will feel that they could be predicted another disaster for Ranieri when he returned to English football for the fourth time. They have had their fingers burned by the ‘Tinkerman’ in the past and are, to some extent, still rebuilding some seven years on from bringing a questionable experiment of their own to a close. Ranieri was dropped following Greece's shambolic defeat to the Faroe Islands.
Greece will be absent from another World Cup party when football’s global showpiece heads to Qatar later this year, having already missed out on tickets for the last three major international tournaments stretching back to 2014.
It was in the summer of that year that Ranieri was snapped up, with Fernando Santos heading off to start his native Portugal out on a path to Euro 2016 glory, but a man with spells at Chelsea, Juventus, and Inter on his CV was gone before he could even fully get his feet under the table.
Where did it go wrong?
Ranieri was handed a two-year contract by the Greek FA on July 25th, 2014. Expectations were high, with an experienced tactician charged with the task of ushering in an exciting new era.
Things got off a tricky start, and never really got any better. Defeat to a 10-man Romania side in September saw those responsible for piecing together a winning team make the worst possible first impression on demanding home support.
A 1-1 draw away in Finland hinted at a corner being turned but said the outing was followed a few days later by a 2-0 reversal against Northern Ireland in Athens. The top seeds and strong favorites to ease their way down a road to the 2016 European Championship were hitting early hurdles and being left off the pace.
Faroe Islands have done the double over Euro 2004 champions Greece
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 13, 2015
Greece 0-1 Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands 2-1 Greece pic.twitter.com/9VhASK3rcI
A humbling 1-0 loss to minnows from the Faroe Islands, also on home soil, proved to be the final straw, with HFF president Georgios Sarris admitting at the time that a serious mistake had been made with Ranieri.
The man himself claimed to have only had 12 days to work with his players across four outings, with it difficult to deliver when access to players is limited, but there was no escaping a record of no wins and one goal from four fixtures.
An ax fell for Ranieri on November 15th, with just 117 days spent in charge of the Greek national side. He would go on to taste Premier League title glory in his next role at Leicester City, but short tenures have become an unfortunately familiar theme for a coach that finds himself back in that sinking ship.
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