Claudio Ranieri will steel himself and try to fight back the tears. ‘I’m a very shy man,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I don’t want to show my emotions. If I am ready, I can be very calm. If I am surprised sometimes little tears happen.’
This occasion, however, might be a test for the Roman as he returns to Leicester City on Sunday for the first time in competition. An opponent and a friend, in a stadium where his smiling features are prominent on photographs and pre-match highlights reels.
Sacked but not forgotten, just as he harbours no animosity and has wished the club well since his exit a mere nine months after winning the Premier League title, the 5,000-1 miracle, and that spine-tingling presentation when he stood beside his friend Andrea Bocelli as the tenor sang Nessun Dorma in a Leicester shirt.
Claudio Ranieri will return to Leicester for Watford's fixture against the Premier League giants
‘Always, I cheered with them,’ said the Watford boss. ‘Always I feel a little part of them. I am very proud to be part of the Leicester fairytale and the history of the football club. It was an amazing season and the fans were with me from the beginning.
‘Winning the Premier League will be in my heart for the rest of my life but I am here in Watford to write new things. ’
Like most competitors, Ranieri is not keen to wallow in the past. Looking back on the good times is akin to resting on laurels. It will be frowned upon in the sporting fraternity and best left until retirement but if there can be exceptions then this must be one.
It will be his first game back at the stadium as an opposition manager, since leaving in 2017
Ranieri was prepared to accept that. ‘The pictures I see when I look back are the fantastic chairman and the happy ending with Bocelli, and the crowd around us crazy with happiness. We were so happy. We worked so hard to achieve the Premier League and we were together. More than one man, we were a group of people, all trying to do their very best.’
Ranieri’s only return to the King Power
