Leicester City

Graeme Souness: 'Leicester City players will fall off their perch again'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 15 March 2017

Souness: 'Leicester will fall off their perch'

Graeme Souness accuses Leicester City's players of betraying Claudio Ranieri and believes that it is just a matter of time before they do so again with the new boss.

Graeme Souness has criticised Leicester City's players for helping to force out Claudio Ranieri and insists that it is just a matter of time before they "fall off their perch again".

The Foxes controversially dismissed popular manager Ranieri in February, just nine months after he had steered the club to a historic Premier League title triumph.

Leicester's decision led to widespread outcry from the outside, with many suggesting that the players downed tools in the Italian's latter days and plotted to get him dismissed behind his back.

Souness agrees with these views, claiming that they betrayed Ranieri and will likely do so again in the future.

"They won the league playing that way," he told TV3 Sport following City's Champions League win over Sevilla on Tuesday night. "When you're a manager and you've won the league, are you going to turn up the next season and change things? If it ain't broke why try and fix it?

"He would have been doing the same training, talking to them the same way, preparing for the games the same way, travelling to the games the same way - everything the same. Some of those players at the start of the season believed all of a sudden, 'We're big players, we're champions' and took their foot off the accelerator and got in their big comfy armchairs, with their Bentley in the car park and maybe changed their house.

"They took their foot off the accelerator. What does the manager (Ranieri) do then? The manager has a go at some of them - and points it out to them. And then he falls out with two or three of the influential players in the dressing room and then you've got the followers in the dressing room - all of a sudden he's fallen out with most of the dressing room.

"That's what I believed happened and those players that are rejoicing out there and thinking they're back, that they're big players. They'll fall of their perch again - guaranteed. They've done it once they'll do it again - they'll let you down again."

Craig Shakespeare has guided fallen champions Leicester to three wins from three since taking over from Ranieri last month.