'Loser at Chelsea' returns to his old club as a winner

MUMBAI: Jose Mourinho is best placed to truly appreciate this irony. Claudio Ranieri, a man once derided by the former Real, Inter and Chelsea manager for his lack of proficiency in English, has just scripted what many are calling the most incredible fairytale in English football history.
It was just one of several barbs Mourinho had aimed at Ranieri over the course of a rivalry that was effectively born the day Chelsea's wealthy Russian owner Roman Abramovich turned to the brash Portuguese to succeed the genial Italian on the Blues bench back in June 2004.
However, it was only when both managers crossed each other's paths in Italy that the animosity really began to build. Ranieri was in charge of a Juventus side still in the early stages of repairing the damage done to the Turin giants due to the infamous Calciopoli scandal. Mourinho had just been named manager of Juve's bitter rivals Inter Milan. Following a 3-0 humbling at the hands of Hamburg in a pre-season tournament hosted by Arsenal, Ranieri had stated: "I am not like Mourinho. I don't have to win things to be sure of myself."
The Juventus boss must not have been prepared for the stinging counter that was to come. Taking a dig at Ranieri's lack of major success, Mourinho described his rival as an individual with 'the mentality of someone who doesn't need to win', claimed the Italian was '70-years-old' when in reality he was 56 at the time, and finally ridiculed Ranieri for allegedly struggling to say as much as 'good morning' and 'good afternoon'" in English despite having lived in England for five years.
Towards the end of that same season, Ranieri was sacked by Juventus though a few months down the line, he landed his dream job of managing hometown club AS Roma. The 2009-10 season witnessed not just a thrilling title race between Inter and Roma, but also the managers of the two clubs regularly trading verbal volleys through the media.
After Ranieri had expressed his displeasure over Mourinho mischievously suggesting Roma could offer Siena a financial incentive to beat Inter on the final day of the season, a result that would have helped the Italian Capital side pip the Milanese to the Scudetto, the Portuguese responded with another acerbic rant. This one included a rather distasteful assessment of Ranieri's reign at Stamford Bridge.
"In 2004, after coming to Chelsea and asking why Ranieri was replaced, I was told they wanted to win and it was never going to happen with him. It is really not my fault if he was considered a loser at Chelsea," Mourinho said at the time.
Factually, it would have been hard to argue with Mourinho then. Although a popular figure among fans and pundits, a close examination of Ranieri's career prior to his arrival at Leicester City would have shown a Coppa Italia, an Italian Super Cup, a Copa del Rey and the Uefa Super Cup under his list of ‘major accomplishments'. He had never won a top flight league title. The closest he had ever got to one was during that 2009-10 Serie A campaign with Roma when Mourinho, of course, had the last laugh, inspiring Inter to the League, Cup and Champions League treble – the first Italian side to achieve the feat. As Mourinho soaked in all the plaudits, Ranieri began to be seen as someone struggling to distance himself from the ‘nice guys finish last' tag.
My how the tables have turned! Six years down the line, Ranieri may well have surpassed the best among Mourinho's impressive list of achievements, in terms of the sheer enormity of the challenge of steering a 5000-1 underdog to the top of the richest football league in the world.
The 'loser at Chelsea' will return to his former club on Sunday, as a proud and distinguished winner this time. Mourinho, of course, won't be on the bench, at least, to greet his old rival, and there's a touch of irony associated with this fact too. It was, after all, a deserved 2-1 defeat to Ranieri's troops at the King Power Stadium on December 15 that ultimately brought Mourinho's second stint as Chelsea boss to an abrupt end.
And like Gary Linekar, journalists, bookmakers, you name it, the self-proclaimed 'Special One' too has been forced to eat humble pie. "I lost my title to Claudio Ranieri and it is with incredible emotion that I live this magic moment in his career," Mourinho said, not long after the very bunch he had steered to the EPL title 12 months ago had held Tottenham Hotspur to a 2-2 draw at home on May 2 that mathematically sealed Leicester's place in football folklore.
It's a season the Foxes and their passionate supporters will never forget. Perhaps the same could be said of Chelsea albeit for entirely different reasons. But it's pretty safe to assume that, come Sunday, when the Blues host the side who have knocked them off their throne, the Stamford Bridge faithful will momentarily put aside their own frustrations, and pay a fitting tribute to their old coach - the nice guy, who finally finished first!