Premier League bottom club Fulham surprisingly appointed former Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri as Slavisa Jokanovic’s replacement on Wednesday.
Be honest, who saw this coming?
It was no secret that Slavisa Jokanovic was under pressure at Fulham after a dreadful start to the Premier League season that has seen them lose their last seven games, sitting bottom of the table with a bleak five points so far.
But there was no indication that he would be given the boot on Wednesday morning – or that Claudio Ranieri would be immediately appointed as Jokanovic’s successor.
Two years after leading Leicester City to the Premier League title in stunning fashion, the 67-year-old is back in English football, though saving this Fulham side from an immediate return to the Championship represents a very different task.
But speaking to Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (14 November, 9.30am), former Fulham midfielder Steve Sidwell is already backing Ranieri to keep The Cottagers up – and believes he is the right man to solve their much-publicised defensive problems.
“There’s no way Fulham will want to go back down. I still speak at people at Fulham and they conceded far too many goals, they’re obviously very naïve and it happened many, many times,” Sidwell said.
“There’s a few tweaks that could’ve happened (under Jokanovic). With Leicester, (Ranieri) was keeping clean sheets.
“I’d have to say yes (Ranieri will keep Fulham up). They’ve got all the ingredients to do it, they just need to fine tune a few things, in particular the defensive unit straight away.”
Leicester conceded just 36 goals during their unforgettable 2015/16 season under the veteran tactician, just seven more than Fulham have let in during the opening 12 games of the current campaign.
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