Ranieri takes charge at Juve

I expected the stories linking the vacant job at Juve with Claudio Ranieri to be nothing more than idle speculation - especially given the comments attributed to him that appeared to suggest he had all but taken the City job (in principle at least), but today's announcement that he has succeeded Didier Deschamps at the newly-promoted side was certainly a shock and has left most Blues in a state of flux.

No real reasons have come out thus far to suggest his reasons for taking the Juve job over he City one (merely some hyperbole at the press conference), so it appears that either:

a) He was keen to take the City job, and may have tentatively agreed to take charge, only for the lure of the Juve post to turn his head at the last minute.

Or perhaps more worryingly,

b) He became disenchanted/concerned at the time the takeover appears to be taking and decided he couldn't wait around for something that may not come to fruition - particularly with an offer from Juve landing on his doorstep.

It has certainly put people in pessimistic mood, with a shortlist of Ranieri, Houllier, Eriksson etc now appearing to comprise Jewell, Warnock and Souness.

Perhaps ofmost concern is that this is now throwing weight behind the rumour that the Shinawatra takeover is soon to be dead in the water - leading to the prospect of the current board remaining in charge and scratching around for a replacement for Pearce (how foolish would they then appear) echoing a situation just over ten years ago when Alan Ball arrived at the club ludicrously late in the day to try and assemble a side with little or no budget.

Yet again though, our board are remaining extremely quiet over the whole affair - not even so much as a 'We are conducting a thorough search for the next manager and have targets in sight' type message, leaving most to the conclusion that there is nothing but confusion reigning at the club at the present time.

The silence is beginning to speak volumes.

Ranieri resigns from Parma

From BBC Sport:

Claudio Ranieri has resigned as manager of Italian Serie A
side Parma.
The former Chelsea manager is expected to eventually take over
at Manchester City, who sacked Stuart Pearce at the end of the season.
The
56-year-old Italian took over the struggling Parma side in February and guided
them to safety, with a 12th-place finish.
His impressive stint has
reportedly convinced the City board he is the man to take over from Pearce.
A statement from Parma said: "Claudio Ranieri has informed the club of his
intention to leave his role as first-team coach.
"The club would like to
thank him for the precious work he carried out, which resulted in keeping Parma
in Serie A. We wish him success for the future."

What has been interesting in developments over the past day or so is the words that have come from the Ranieri camp - whilst never attributable to him directly, almost certainly done so with his consent:

"The Manchester City challenge reminds me of the
experience I had at Chelsea where without spending £1, we built a good team.
"I created the Chelsea miracle from nothing. My achievement convinced Roman
Abramovich to buy the club. Then, mountains of money came as well as a selection
of top players."

You do tend to forget that in the age of Mourinho and Abramovich, it was Ranieri who brought the likes of Cech, Cole, Lampard and Gudjohnsen to the club, whilst bringing through a young John Terry.

It seems a foregone conclusion that barring a miracle (we are talking about City here) things will be progressed along over the next week, and it is hoped that Ranieri will already be assessing the current squad with a view to reinforcing it shortly after his arrival.

Confusion reigns with Ranieri 'announcement'

Another day, another angle.

A day after Claudio Ranieri was believed to be leaning towards a stay in Serie A with Parma, and amidst stories that the Shinawatra deal was on the verge of collapse, comes reports that Ranieri has agreed to take the vacant City job once the takeover by Shinawatra is completed.

Sky Sports were first to report this earlier this evening and there hasn't been much follow-up from other news outlets (or the club) in actually confirming the story as legitimate.

This of course all comes after the afternoon news that Ray Ranson had withdrawn his offer - but may re-enter the race should Shinawatra make a formal bid, which on the back of the Ranieri reports (if true) seems to be the end of any hopes that Ranson has of gaining control of the club.

If Ranieri has agreed to take the job, he must have almost certainly been tipped off that the takeover will be completed in the not too distant future, given that by doing this he appears to be severing his relationship with Parma.

Hopefully, the next week will draw a line under all of this and we can finally have new owners and a new manager in place, and get on with the important business of trying to put together a side for next season - something that is imperative given the lack of international football this summer is leading to sides bolstering their squads even at this early stage.