Tinkerman no more: Ranieri on the verge of career-defining achievement

His English is better, he is older and wiser, and he has never been closer to a league title, but Claudio Ranieri's biggest achievement in a season of many is that finally, after 30 years in football, he is getting his due.

The British media belittled his career, deriding him as "The Tinkerman," a name which had became the epitaph of a disheartening career. Jose Mourinho, Ranieri's successor at Chelsea, dismissed the Italian as "old," and as "someone who doesn't know how to win." The jabs never ended.

There were many reasons for Ranieri to be bitter with the football establishment, which had seemingly worked against him. Ranieri rarely spent more than two years working at any top-flight club, limiting his trophy cabinet to a couple of domestic cups and a super cup.

Related: Ranieri wants Foxes to finish with movie-style flourish

But if anything, he has killed with charm in his second go-around in England. The most popular sight of Ranieri is one of him smiling or shaking hands with every reporter at prematch press conferences. Everyone loves Claudio now.

He looked visibly emotional as he watched video of people thanking him for spearheading the incredible story that is Leicester City, an otherwise average team from an East Midlands city more obsessed with rugby. In 132 years, Leicester could never claim to be the champion of England. On Sunday, with a win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, it can.

'You can't remain indifferent'

Ranieri has held back tears because he feels like he has to. Only recently has he thrown away the stoicism and embraced the power of the moment.

But he could no longer keep up the act after beating Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on April 10. "Seeing all those people around us, entire families on buses with Leicester shirts that followed us to Sunderland, really hit me hard," Ranieri said afterwards. "You realise how important football is in moments like that. When this sport is able to provide such emotions, you can't remain indifferent."

Just as Leicester has transformed in the space of a year, so has Ranieri. He has had to adapt to reach this point. The objective was first survival, and when another season in the Premier League was assured, the target was the Champions League, and when Leicester qualified for Europe's premier competition, Ranieri dared the fans to dream of a title. He kept redirecting the attention elsewhere.

He knew where he came from, where Leicester came from, what the odds and the pundits said about his team. Ranieri wasn't prepared to let himself or his team get complacent. And even if he was ready to forgive, forgetting was out of the question.

"No one remembers the first match when Ranieri was meant to be the first manager to be sacked and Leicester was going to be relegated," Ranieri said earlier this month. "I remember it very well."

The 1st Tinkerman

Being the bridesmaid on so many occasions surely made the pain of losing familiar and the idea of winning seem like a secret. Finally, Ranieri - who finished second in three different leagues with Chelsea, Roma, and Monaco - was in on it. By shielding Leicester from distractions and getting too caught up in the hysteria, he let his players perform without crushing pressure. Jamie Vardy could attack space like he only knows how, Riyad Mahrez could bamboozle defenders, and N'Golo Kante could run and run and run.

Ranieri knows too well what the burden of expectations can do to a team, and a person. He felt the presence of new owner Roman Abramovich hovering over him at Chelsea in 2004. Appointed four years earlier, Ranieri had made progress with the Blues, overcoming a language barrier, slowly climbing the Premier League standings, and laying the foundation for future success with the signings of Frank Lampard, William Gallas, and Claude Makelele. (Ranieri also put into motion deals for Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, and Arjen Robben.)

But Abramovich always wanted more. More signings, more wins, more trophies. Chelsea's Champions League semi-final loss to Monaco in May 2004 spelled the end for Ranieri, even though he deserved more of something himself: time.

The demands from above undoubtedly drove Ranieri to do bold things he thought could precipitate success. Thus came the moniker.

The Tinkerman was his name because he couldn't stop changing the lineup. He would deploy star players in odd positions. You would see Argentinian forward Hernan Crespo in a midfield position, striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on the right wing, or centre-back Robert Huth in a full-back slot.

But the erratic substitutions in the second leg against Monaco were what cost Ranieri his job.

Ironically, the knives are now out on managers who don't rotate enough. The schedule for a team competing in European and domestic competition could amount to anywhere between 50 and 70 games a season, and the best teams need the depth to compete.

Ranieri's situation was simply made untenable because of Abramovich. Suddenly, with more than £100 million to spend, the wins had to come just as quickly.

"Now everybody is a Tinkerman but the flag is mine. I was the first," Ranieri said in March. "I moved a lot of players only in the last season at Chelsea when new players arrived after the start of the Premier League. Abramovich came in at the beginning of July and at that point we started to buy new players, so it was normal that I changed players.

"Because of that, I was the Tinkerman."

A new beginning

Huth can sense the change in Ranieri. He is 64 years old now, without many other places to go. He's managed in Italy, Spain, England, and France, and even (horrifically) on the international stage with Greece.

The hard-nosed German defender arrived at Leicester a month before Ranieri's appointment, a strange twist of fate for two casualties of the Abramovich era. There they were at Leicester, a land of misfits upon misfits.

This version of Ranieri, though, wasn't angry with anyone or tense about anything.

"He has changed quite a lot, in my opinion," Huth told Sky Sports. "He is much more relaxed. I've never seen him laugh so much.

"At Chelsea, with Abramovich coming in, with all the finances changing, the pressure went to focusing on winning titles immediately.

"Everything was a lot more intense, even him as a person. Here it is not the opposite, but it is relaxed. Maybe it is something he has learned through age. I was much more intense when I was younger."

There hasn't exactly been an absence of pressure at the King Power Stadium - relegation, after all, was a very real possibility only a year ago - but the script has certainly been flipped. At Leicester, Ranieri largely inherited the squad, his only notable signings being Kante, midfielder Daniel Amartey, and winger Demarai Gray. This team was Nigel Pearson's.

Leicester sacked Pearson after his son and three other trainees were dismissed for their racist behaviour during a trip to Thailand. So this time Ranieri built on the foundation already there, the architect turned mason. All the Italian had to do was implement his philosophy, a blend of English spirit and Italian tactics, full of counter-attacking football and 1-0 victories.

He picked his trusty soldiers and stuck with them. Without many injuries to battle or an overwhelming fixture list to bear in mind, Leicester largely looked the same week in, week out. Ranieri has only made 27 changes to the starting lineup this season.

His selection policy now drew questions for a completely different reason.

"I see a very good level and fitness, so why do I have to change?" Ranieri said. "If I see somebody a little tired during a game or a training session, maybe I can change."

Without the suspended Vardy on Sunday, Ranieri will once again have to dig into his roster. Leonardo Ulloa, the quiet deputy and timely goal scorer, is expected to start at Old Trafford. Ranieri has had to fiddle just a little bit in the latter part of this title run, but make no mistake: He is the Tinkerman no more.