Former Premier League side Leicester City Manager Claudio Ranieri "finally broke his silence" on Monday regarding his "controversial sacking" by suggesting he had been betrayed by "someone behind me" and denying that the players ousted him at the King Power Stadium, according to Ducker & Tweedale of the London TELEGRAPH. Ranieri's dismissal as Leicester manager in February, only 298 days after he led the club to the Premier League title in "arguably the greatest shock in English football history," attracted "widespread outrage at the time." The Italian has kept a "dignified silence" since then but, speaking candidly for the first time about his departure, he "refused to blame the Leicester players for his sacking and instead pointed the finger elsewhere." Ranieri said, "I listened to a lot of stories about this. Maybe it could be somebody behind me, but also the little problem I had the year before and we won the title. Maybe these people, this year, when we lose they push a little more. That's it. I don't want to tell. I am a serious man, a loyal man. What I have to say, I say face to face." Speaking before Leicester's Champions League quarterfinal first leg match at La Liga side Atlético Madrid on Wednesday, Ranieri said, "No, I can't believe it. I cannot believe that my players killed me. No, no, no. The players maybe don't give their maximum because there are other problems." Ranieri said that he was "shocked" to lose his job "barely a fortnight after a statement of support from the club." Ranieri: "The turning point was the Sevilla match. In the second half everyone was together again, fighting, Jamie [Vardy] scoring. We made very good matches before that but not with the same consistency of the year before, that was the problem. To go to Sevilla, who won the Europa League three times in a row, it's not easy to go there and [only] lose 2-1, so when I was sacked it was a shock" (TELEGRAPH, 4/10).
