And besides, what coaching experience do you have? We're all in the same position.
I've no coaching experience, but I'm not the one calling experienced coaches "idiot" or "clueless". It's fair enough to disagree with some decisions, but when someone who can't even be called an amateur calls a professional with years and years of top flight coaching experience "idiot" or "clueless" he can't expect to be taken seriously. So yeah, we are all in the same position, but some people obviously overestimate their position.
Ranieri might have coached several top flight clubs but he's never won anything of note, has he?
He won a Spanish and Italian Cup, an Italian and European Supercup. That's nothing special, but when did he have a team with whom he should have definitely won something? You could argue that in his last season with Chelsea he had a lot of money and could have won the Championship. He was only second in that season to probably the best Arsenal side ever that won the EPL unbeaten(!). That's hardly a failure. Ranieri is no wonder coach who will win major titles with an inferior squad, but he usually gets out of our team what can realistically be expected. You might ask for more, fair enough, but that's no reason the bash that guy that ridiculously.
How about all the points we've thrown away this season against smaller teams? How about the running theme of us only starting to play once we've gone behind and must take the game by the scruff of the neck?
Every team will drop some points against smaller teams. Milan, Roma, Fiorentina etc. they all have dropped more points than we have. But nobody is giving Ranieri credit that he has done better than their coaches so far. Even the "Special One" got RAPED against freaking Atalanta (3-0 at HT). Nobody has a perfect record. It's fair enough to state that we dropped too many points and often start too slow. I agree with that. But overall we have done reasonably well compared to our opposition. That's the point. If you ask us to do better, fair enough, I agree. But I find it completely ridiculous to frequently bash a guy who overall is doing fine.
How about you show some of the balance that you only laud on others who share your point of view?
I've done this often enough. I have a decent list of things that I think don't go well enough and you have even quoted some of these points. So don't pretend like I don't balance my posts. There are enough reasons to be critical towards Ranieri, but I strongly dislike these absurd exaggerations that a coach is either an "idiot" or a omnipotent god. There is a lot inbetween. And Ranieri is a good upper level coach who has done a good job at Juventus so far. He is not a great coach, though.
We have not criticized Ranieri half as much as we have in the past, because for the most part he's had a decent season concerning results.
And, did it hurt to give him credit? The thing is when we do well nobody says anything. If it goes downhill everybody is immediately here to bash him.
We don't have a squad which can challenge for the Scudetto against Inter nor one that can do the same in the CL against Europe's finest. Love Ranieri or hate him, we all find that fact to be self-evident.
So we agree that Ranieri is achieving what is realistically to be expected from this squad. That doesn't make him special, but that doesn't make him "clueless" or an idiot either, does it?
However, as the manager it's his responsibility to ensure he constructs a squad that can shoulder the ambitions and expectations of the club he's coaching.
The ambitions and expectations of this club as stated by the new management when they came into power in 2006 was to serious challenge for major titles in 5 years time. Those were realistic ambitions in my opinion. This is year #3. We are second in the league and made a decent impression in CL although being weakened by a record breaking injury plague. I think we are right on schedule. So Ranieri is his doing a fine job.
And this is where you quite conveniently haven't talked about the failure he has consistently demonstrated across several clubs to make them winners.
Ranieri has a reputation of being able to build a team. He did so at his first stint at Valencia and he did so at Chelsea. And since we are in a rebuilding process he was hired to exactly do that at Juventus. I agree that his recod so far doesn't suggest that he can do the extra step to actually win major trophies. But that's not yet expected anyway. As long as we make progress he deserves to stay. Considering our position right now it will take not much time (up to two seasons) until he needs to win something to justify his job. If he doesn't I will join you in your demand for a new coach. But right now this guy is on schedule and we are progressing. There is no reason to fire him.
You want to go on and on about how we revere Lippi, but can you question the man's record after all he has done at our club? Have some perspective, it's clear Ranieri is not worth mentioning in the same breath as him, that's not my opinion that's history's. Has his results been satisfactory, sure they have given the mediocre squad he's had to work with.
You missed my point. I even stated that Ranieri is not in Lippis league to avoid such "misunderstandings". I just wanted to show that there is unfortunately a habit among football fans in general and Internet forum fans in particular to bash (in contrast to sophisticated criticism) coaches, regardless of who they are, what they have achieve and what is realistic. I find that pretty annoying and I try to change that attitude in this forum. Unfortunately without any progress.
But can we agree that next season a club of our size and stature should be really trying to credibly challenge for honors? And to do that we really need to upgrade the likes of Molinaro, Grygera, Tiago, etc?
Sure, but I can assure you that's not going to happen. At most we will get "small" upgrades. And that's not Ranieris fault and it's only party the managements fault. We simply can't afford more.
Prandelli and Spalletti quite obviously do not have the financial backing to really compete at the same level as we do. Why do i have to state something so incredibly obvious to everyone else?
Roma had higher revenue than we did last year. Prandelli got to spend more money this summer than Ranieri did. Obviously I still expect us to be ahead of Roma and Fiorentina, because we have a better squad. I'm just pointing out the contradictions in those who bash the coach and our management. Considering that we supposely have an "idiot" coach and an "incompetent" management it's must be a miracle that we are still ahead of Roma and Fiorentina.
And who wanted Spalleti? I certainly didn't, i've always thought he's a one trick pony.
Well, we can agree on that. Who do you suggest, though?
Mourinho has been average by his ridiculously high standards, do you want to really question his achievements? What did Ranieri win at his age? Do you see where i'm going with this?
Yeah, I see where you are going with this. You are going far away from my point. Again, I have stated myself that I don't see Ranieri in neither Lippis, Capellos or Mourinhos league. So stop that nonsense. Again, I pointed out that even the "great" coaches make horrible mistakes. And that the praise they get here and the bashing that Ranieri gets here are completely unbalanced.
But it's not like we didn't criticize Capello for his failure in Europe when assessing his tenure as a whole, or Lippi in his last season where it was clear he had overstayed his managerial welcome, and his underwhelming CL final record.
That was exactly my point. We are making progress.
But both these guys regardless of their flaws were and are winners, the same cannot be said of Ranieri. Why is that so hard to process for you?
The point is that some people only come here to bash Ranieri, often enough without good reasons, while they can't acknowledge that he is doing a decent job and achieves what is realistically to expected. And there are people who completely lack a sense for reality (and past evidence) when they pretend that without Ranieri we would never have a dip of form, would never loose points to small teams and win the Scudetto easily. All these things are annoying and a team should work hard to avoid them, but they are perfectly normal and don't just happen to Ranieri. They happen to all coaches.
The same goes for the management. I disagree with several of their decisions, but I cringe when I read some of the suggestions of the "experts". I'm just asking for more balance, more sophisticated criticism and less of that annoying bashing.
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