Claudio Ranieri’s biographer offers insight into possible main reason he was sacked

This is an interesting theory from a man in the know.

Claudio Ranieri lost his job as Leicester City manager earlier this week. The affable Italian oversaw one of the greatest sporting stories ever last season, when relegation favourites Leicester won the Premier League. The Foxes are without a league goal in 2017, and are just one point and one place above the relegation zone. By the time they host Liverpool on Monday evening, the champions could be in the bottom three. Yet, many feel Ranieri should have been given the chance to keep the team in the division, and his dismissal has saddened almost every football fan. However, according to reports, the senior Leicester players won't be sad to see the back of the 65-year-old. https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/835384609571483650 Some players were reportedly unhappy with Ranieri's tactics, training sessions and his ban on chicken burgers. They are said to have voiced their concerns to the club's owner on Wednesday night, following Leicester's 2-1 loss to Sevilla in the last-16 of the Champions League. It is perhaps telling that Kasper Schmeichel is the only Leicester player, so far, to publicly thank the Italian since he was dismissed. However, according to football writer Gabriele Marcotti, the main reason behind Ranieri leaving the club may be due a breakdown in the relationship with the coaching staff, in particular Craig Shakespeare. Marcotti, who wrote a biography of Ranieri, writes in the Times today that there was tension between Shakespeare and Ranieri, which ultimately led to the Italian leaving the club. Shakespeare was his assistant manager and is currently caretaker manager. Ranieri, who brought two coaches with him to Leicester, inherited Shakespeare, and several other coaches, when he succeeded Nigel Pearson as manager in 2015. The coaches had worked with Pearson since 2008. Some players are said to want their former manager to be reappointed. "It (the relationship) had the potential to go two ways," Marcotti writes.

"It would either result in the right kind of creative tension, with the two sets of men effectively learning from each other and pushing their own boundaries. Or it would end up in a classic clash of cultures and mistrust. "Success papers over a lot of cracks and Leicester's wild ride in 2015-16, led the owners to believe it was a case of the former. And maybe it was. But this season, it was clear that things were off."

Marcotti also writes that Ranieri was frustrated by the club's transfers last summer, and recruitment suffered when Steve Walsh, who spotted N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, left for Everton. Catch up with this week's episode of 888sport Football Friday Live