Mutiny at Leicester? There must be only one winner... Claudio Ranieri

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The club statement was unequivocal. ‘In light of recent speculation, Leicester City would like to make absolutely clear its unwavering support for first-team manager, Claudio Ranieri.

‘While there is collective appreciation that form needs to improve, the unprecedented success achieved in recent seasons has been based firmly on stability, togetherness and determination. The entire club is and will remain united behind its manager . . . ’

Further down, the players got a mention, too. The club are behind them, as well, obviously. But if Ranieri’s employers stay true to their word and he makes it through to the summer, player power may be about to meet its Waterloo in Leicester. 

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has been backed with the club struggling in the league 

Foxes captain Wes Morgan cuts a dejected figure following Sunday's defeat by Man United

This is unlike last season’s mutiny at Chelsea. Leicester’s players do not have the upper hand. Elite clubs can be dominated by pockets of strong individuals, as Chelsea have been. Leicester were stronger together. Therefore, they can be replaced.

Roman Abramovich is criticised for not taking a tougher stance in supporting his managers over the years. There remains the suspicion that Luiz Felipe Scolari, Andre Villas-Boas and Jose Mourinho, second time around, have all been undermined at some time by the actions of individuals in the dressing room. Yet on each occasion it has been the manager who has departed, not the players.

Certainly, last season, there was the feeling that key individuals in the squad saw off Mourinho by under-performing and the dramatic inconsistency between seasons undoubtedly suggests a problem. Yet as maddening as that must have been for Abramovich, what was he to do?

With the exception of Willian and Cesar Azpilicueta, just about every player suffered a drop in form or application, and some outrageously so. But where could Abramovich go with that? Replacing talent at the elite level is both difficult and expensive. If Lionel Messi started acting up at Barcelona, it is not as if they could just go out and buy another. 

There was a mutiny at Chelsea last season and Jose Mourinho lost his job after a worrying run

Roman Abramovich took action but decided to replace his manager rather than his squad

Let’s say Abramovich was so angry he wanted to dump three players at the end of last season: Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas. That’s £150m in expenditure, minimum, always providing the talent is out there. Some could be recouped in sales, although Chelsea would have to take a drop in fees.

They would basically be buying high, selling cheap — the opposite of their modern strategy. And who would they get? Who out there is better than Hazard, at the top of his game? It is easier, safer and cheaper to change the manager and hope the players respond to a fresh approach.

That is what Abramovich did by bringing in Antonio Conte: he took the pragmatic route, switched one man, not five. 

Eden Hazard stayed at the club and has been one of the stars of the season with Chelsea top

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It is very different at Leicester. If this season’s form is the result of a fissure in the relationship between Ranieri and his players, the group may be surprised at who comes out the winner. It is more straightforward finding a Leicester player than it is another coach with the smarts to win the league as Ranieri did last year.

For some time there have been rumours that all is not well with the champions. At the weekend, an article written by the journalist who worked on Jamie Vardy’s autobiography — so we can presume is well-informed — claimed that the constant tactical and personnel changes this season were having an effect on team spirit.

Ranieri, we learned, announced he was playing 3-4-3 at Copenhagen in the Champions League less than two hours before kick-off. His methods are leaving players confused.

On Tuesday, another development. Players are upset because post-match meals of chicken burgers have been replaced by pasta. Obviously a delicate lot, maybe they would prefer to be managed by Gordon Ramsay. 

Jamie Vardy, a hero last year, has scored just three Premier League goals since September 10

Whatever the substance or origin of these stories, irrefutable evidence is before our eyes. Leicester have not won a league match in 2017, and have won just once in the league since beating Manchester City on December 10, falling to within a point of the relegation zone.

In the circumstances, the FA Cup is hardly a priority, but were they to lose a home replay against Championship Derby tonight, it would serve as further indication of their unravelling.

Riyad Mahrez, last season’s Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year, is a shell of that talent; Vardy has three league goals since September 10 — all in the same match — while Danny Drinkwater’s influence is greatly reduced without N’Golo Kante by his side. Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, arguably the most unlikely title-winning centre-half pairing there has been, now appear cumbersome and vulnerable.

Throughout Leicester’s squad, there are players who cannot recapture last season’s form and while many thought a dip inevitable this season after such an exceptional year, few would have expected a fight against relegation. The greatest worry is that the players will shirk responsibility, and try to shift the blame on to Ranieri. Then the owners have a straight choice.

The statement on Tuesday suggested they are not about to act on Ranieri, short term. There is, of course, still time for panic if results do not pick up, and matches against Swansea and Hull in the next four weeks are likely to be crucial.

Yet if performances improve and Leicester survive to play next season in the Premier League, Ranieri’s position appears far stronger than that of his players. Maybe making that plain was the intention on Tuesday. It was an endorsement that also served as a warning.

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri lifts the Premier League trophy with his team last season

Ranieri does not need to find a replacement for Hazard, one of the best forwards in the world on his day, but for 33-year-old journeyman Morgan at centre half. He is not detailed to change Costa, but Vardy, who at 30, has only enjoyed one truly great season as a goalscorer in a top division.

It would be near impossible to bring together a second team of champions as Leicester did previously, but that is not the aim of realistic owners. Survive this season and Ranieri can begin rebuilding a decent Leicester side, one that can hold their own in the Premier League without feeling permanently under threat of relegation.

This is one occasion when backing a manager — FIFA’s coach of the year, no less — makes more sense than siding with the players. It will be easier to unearth more Leicester players than it ever will be to locate another Ranieri.

IF PEP SAYS AGUERO'S OUT, HE'S OUT

Manchester City are adamant they do not want to sell Sergio Aguero, but it is not really their choice. There is no point giving the job to Pep Guardiola and then balking at the inevitable revolution. 

City’s coach has a very specific take on how football should be played, and sometimes even the finest players do not fit into it.

As with Joe Hart last summer, if Guardiola decides the man who scored arguably the most famous goal in City’s history is not up to his standards, the club will just have to take a deep breath and do as he wishes.

Sergio Aguero has been dropped by manager Pep Guardiola in favour of Gabriel Jesus

N’Golo Kante, according to Arsene Wenger, is another one that got away. He wanted the player at Arsenal, but lost out to Chelsea. It is one more sign of the times, sadly. 

Go back a few years and Chelsea, or Leicester, would not have got a look in, because Wenger’s knowledge of the French domestic scene would have identified and bought Kante from Caen, or even Boulogne.

He did that a lot in his early years at Arsenal; but when was the last time?

It probably looks rather lenient that Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalov has not been banned for striking a ball in anger into the face of umpire Arnaud Gabas. Yet what would be the point of that?

Shapovalov’s wild, unintentional, act — he was furious with himself, not the poor official — has already cost his country their Davis Cup tie against Great Britain. He immediately apologised, was visibly upset having let Canada down and fronted up at a press conference, promising that it would never happen again.

Shapovalov is 17. He made a stupid, terrible mistake, and has paid for it.

Sometimes we must simply accept that, and move on.

Denis Shapovalov has been fined a total of £5,623 for hitting the ball into the umpire's face

LIONS ROAR THANKS TO HUGO THE BOSS 

Cameroon coach Hugo Broos did not just have to deal with eight players, including Liverpool’s Joel Matip and Allan Nyom of West Bromwich Albion, who refused to go to the Africa Cup of Nations. He also left out captain Stephane M’bia and 72-cap goalkeeper Carlos Kameni when he named his squad last month. Others, like Alex Song, are long gone.

Cameroon’s triumph on Sunday night, beating Egypt 2-1 in the final with a late goal from Vincent Aboubakar, is a reminder of the strength of team unity. Mocked as the poorest Cameroon team of recent years, the current batch have no equivalents of players such as Samuel Eto’o, at the pinnacle of the club game in Europe when he helped win back-to-back African titles in 2000 and 2002.

Instead, Broos put his faith in the likes of Christian Bassogog of Aalborg in Denmark. Just 18 months ago, Bassogog was playing semi-professional for Wilmington Hammerheads in the third tier of United States soccer. Now he is dreaming of a move into one of Europe’s big leagues, after his speed, athleticism and finishing helped place him among the stars of the tournament.

Around Bassogog and others such as Benjamin Moukandjo, Broos built a well-drilled, well-organised team, even a little cautious compared to the freewheeling Lions of past years. Yet by delivering a first trophy since the golden age, Cameroon showed the merits of loyalty, self-discipline and ambition. It was far from a classic tournament, but the achievement of Broos and his unlikely winners has to be admired.

Cameroon won the AFCON title for the fifth time in their history - it was their first in 15 years

Kane Hopps is outraged. ‘For him to sit in his studio and call me an idiot . . . I’m shocked Gary Neville actually said that on live TV in front of millions,’ he gripes. Arsenal fan Hopps prefers protests of a more private kind: like holding up a red-and-white banner reading ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. TIME TO GO’ for the television cameras, moments after Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team had lost 3-1 at Chelsea.

Now, whatever one may think about Wenger, it is a bit rich that a person indulging in a very public protest should then be upset at a strongly expressed opinion.

Some of our more robust below-the-line commentators are similarly sensitive when challenged. They don’t like it up ’em, as Corporal Jones had it. So they’d last two minutes in Neville’s job; or Wenger’s. It should go without saying that supporters have a right to protest. Hopps was not abusive, or threatening, and it is not as if Arsenal fans have failed to give the manager every chance — but it does rather sum up the malaise at the club when the faithful pre-arrange protests in anticipation of defeat.

Hopps brought his banner to Stamford Bridge expecting to lose, and was proved right. Yet does that mean it would have remained unseen in his pocket had Arsenal won? And how directionless is that? If enough is enough, if it is time for Wenger to go, then what difference would one win that bucked a seasons-long trend make?

But that’s how it is at Arsenal. If Arsenal get outplayed at Manchester United and lose, Wenger must go, if they equalise against the run of play in the 89th minute and somehow sneak a draw, then the protests are packed away for another week. That is no way to run a football club. If Hopps wants Wenger out, he puts up his banner at the start, not the end — because the result is immaterial.

Arsenal fan Kane Hopps (right) raises his banner directed at Arsene Wenger at Chelsea

NOW THAT'S A DIVERSE XI

On Wednesday afternoon at approximately 2.15pm, Parliament will debate the governance of the Football Association.

The motion: ‘That this House has no confidence in the ability of the Football Association to comply fully with its duties as a governing body, as the current governance structures of the FA make it impossible for the organisation to reform itself; and calls on the Government to bring forward legislative proposals to reform the governance of the FA.’

It has been brought by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee led by Conservative MP Damian Collins.

‘The committee published two reports in the last Parliament calling for reform of the FA, to allow representatives of fans, women’s football, black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, officials such as referees and the grassroots sport a significantly greater say in the governance of the game,’ a statement from the committee read.

We can see why such a diverse group of 11 MPs would be affronted by the glacial advance of reform at the FA.

Just to recap, then, the committee members are: Damian Collins (white, male, 43); Nigel Adams (white, male, 50); Andrew Bingham (white, male, 54); Paul Farrelly (white, male, 54); Nigel Huddleston (white, male, 46); Julian Knight (white, male, 45); Ian C Lucas (white, male, 56); Chris Matheson (white, male, 49); Jason McCartney (white, male, 49); John Nicolson (white, male, 55); and Julie Elliott (white, female, 53). So 10 white guys between the age of 43 and 56, and a 53-year-old white woman will school the FA on diversity and inclusion. This is why satire is dead.

Sunderland are off on a four-night team bonding trip to New York; Middlesbrough are heading for a warm-weather camp in southern Spain. 

Only in football is the penalty for playing badly an all-expenses paid holiday.