The Italian coach is returning to the Premier League for a second time since guiding Leicester City to a shock league title in 2016.
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English Premier League side Watford has appointed Claudio Ranieri as their new manager. The Italian coach is returning to the Premier League for a second time since guiding Leicester City to a shock league title in 2016. The 69-year-old will replace Xisco Munoz who was in charge of the club for 10 months. Meanwhile Watford announced on Monday that Ranieri has signed a two-year-contract at Vicarage Road. He has also managed Chelsea and Fulham before. He is well known with Watford owners with it believed he has been a candidate for the role in the past.
Ranieri has previously managed Chelsea from 2000 to 2004 before taking charge of Leicester City in July 2015. Then mastermind the club’s 5000-1 League title victory in 2016. He then later won the Best FIFA Men’s coach award, but later he was dismissed midway through the following season.
The Italian then returned to England in 2018 to take charge of Fulham but didn’t have a very good stint as he was sacked after winning just three of his 17 matches in charge. Since then, he has had coaching spells at AS Roma and Sampdoria. His last assignment was with Sampdoria, guiding them to a ninth-place finish, having taken charge in October 2019 with the Serie A club at the bottom of the table.
Ranieri will be Watford’s 13th different permanent manager since the Pozzo family completed their takeover of the club in 2012. Spanish boss Munoz replaced Vladimir Ivic in December 2020. He guided the club to automatic promotion from the championship last season. However, Watford hasn’t had the best of starts in the Premier League, being placed at the 15th spot with just seven points from as many games. Munoz’s last match in charge was a 1-0 defeat against Leeds United at Elland Road.
A club statement announcing the Spaniard’s departure said recent results “strongly indicate a negative trend at a time when team cohesion should be visibly improving”.
Munoz issued his own statement via Twitter after leaving Vicarage Road, saying: “It’s been a wonderful journey and it concluded in a way that I neither expected nor wished for.
“I’m grateful and I will only remember all the good things I have experienced.
“It’s a sad day for me and my family because it marks the end of a period at a club and in a city where we have felt at home.
“I’ve got nothing but words of gratitude for the club that gave me the opportunity to start my first adventure in this exciting country.
“My heartfelt thanks to the players to put blind faith and believing in me and my staff from the first moment so that together we could achieve the dream of promotion to the Premier League.
“And many thanks to all the members of the club who don’t appear on the photos, because they are essential for the proper functioning of this team. You made my life so much easier.
“Finally, I would like to make a special shout out to the fans. It’s only been a year, but I will never forget its intensity and the treatment you have always given me over the year. I will always be a Watford FC fan.”
Ranieri is known to have modernised the traditional 4-4-2 formation by enhancing the full backs and using the two strikers in a dual role during his title winning spell at Leicester. It was under the Italian that Jamie Vardy rose to lime light. The simple tactics of keeping the shape, defending well and quick counter-attack was his winning mantra. His first game will be at home to Liverpool on Saturday, October 16.
