The appointment of Claudio Ranieri as Leicester City manager in 2015 wasn’t met with much enthusiasm. In fact, bookies were tipping him to be the first boss to suffer the sack that very season.
How wrong they were. In fairytale fashion, the Italian galvanised a team who had narrowly survived relegation the previous season and locked horns with Yeovil Town the campaign before that, to the Premier League title.
It was simply the stuff of legend, yet it very nearly didn’t happen. It has emerged that Ranieri may not have been Leicester’s first port of call after all.RIVAL CONTENDER
The Foxes, in fact, wanted David Moyes to become their manager in the summer of 2015.
Rather incredibly, Leicester nearly turned down their title inspiring coach for a man who has lacked managerial consistency ever since he left Everton. It’s certainly scary for supports to think about.
As per the Daily Mail, the 53-year-old explained: “I was asked after Nigel Pearson left and before Claudio came in. I was asked if I would be interested but I'd made my mind up that I wanted to manage abroad and I wanted to stay in Spain.
"These things happen. I've been offered plenty of other jobs and later thought, 'Why didn't I take that one or this one?'.
"At the time, Leicester were near the bottom of the Premier League, they'd just avoided relegation, so you wouldn't have thought they were going to be champions. It wasn't something that made me think.
"This is something I want to do". 'I never saw them getting into the position they got into. But I've no regrets - I made a decision at the time."
It’s certainly interesting to consider where Leicester would find themselves currently had Moyes become disillusioned on the continent. However, it’s hard to see the Scot having inspired the plucky Foxes to the Champions League.
DECISION
Moyes is far from a poor manager, of course. Besides, this is the man who Sir Alex Ferguson recommended as his Manchester United successor.
Nevertheless, at the time, he was struggling to settle in at Real Socieded and the less said about his United spell the better.
The same can be said of Ranieri though who was on the back of an ignominious dismissal from the Greece job.
Consequently, it seems incomprehensible that Leicester could immerge from a seemingly lose-lose choice with a league title in their back pocket. It may have been a kick in the teeth at the time, but Moyes rejected them was nothing short of a blessing.
Besides, it’s not hard to ascertain the winner from the situation. Ranieri is embracing European football, while Moyes treads water in the relegation zone.
Maybe soaking up some extra Spanish sunshine wasn’t the right decision in the end.
Then again, the Scot was never one renowned for his choices. Marouane Fellaini to Manchester United anyone?
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