Claudio Ranieri being sacked by Leicester City just nine months after winning a historic league title with the club may have seemed unduly harsh. But in fact, Ranieri is joining an illustrious list of managers who have suffered this fate.
Ranieri’s dismissal marks the second straight year the reigning Premier League champions sacked their manager the following season, after Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea imploded last year. Mourinho and the Blues lifted the trophy in May 2015 and parted ways in December of the same year.
Ranieri is not even the first Italian to have been fired soon after a league triumph. Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini can share Ranieri’s pain, with Ancelotti having been sacked by Chelsea a year after sealing the club’s first Premier League-FA Cup double, and Mancini getting the boot after winning the 2007-08 Serie A title with Inter Milan and the 2011-12 Premier League title with Manchester City.