Claudio Ranieri - Proud Man Walking

Having made our plans for the future at that first meeting and before the buying programme we discussed was so satisfactorily under way, I invited our new owner down to the training ground (a facility not exactly up to the standard befitting a club with a name like Chelsea) so that he could see it at first hand and get to know the group of players who were already preparing for the new season. I was very pleased when he took up the invitation immediately. When we arrived at Harlington, just a short distance from Heathrow Airport, I called the squad together on the pitch and presented all the players and members of my staff to Mr Abramovich, one by one. Beyond the exchange of a handshake and the usual pleasantries, I do not recall any of the players or staff saying or doing anything in particular – apart from Roberto Sassi, that is. Roberto is the little man you see taking the players through their warm-up routine on the pitch before every match, the one who prepares them meticulously every day in training. He has been with me since I was manager at Fiorentina, and in my book he is an outstanding professional, a great worker and a keen student of all the new fitness methods, whatever their origin. He became famous twenty years ago in Italy as the first to see the importance and exploit the possibilities of the computer in our work. At all events, Roberto is not only a friend, and for me an irreplaceable colleague, but also an incredible personality when you get to know him. Just consider the way he introduced himself on that day in July to Mr Abramovich.

‘Pleased to meet you. I’m the second-best fitness coach in the world. The first is dead.’

His standing joke, of course, but remarkable that he came out with it in the presence of such an important new owner. And he has never told me who No 1 might be!

The first of the new players to sign contracts were the two goalkeepers Marco Ambrosio and Jurgen Macho, who had been bought with the limited finances available to the ‘old’ Chelsea, but were still quality players. They put pen to paper on 2 July, which coincidentally was not only the same day that John Terry signed a four-year extension to his contract, to my great delight, but also the day that Ken Bates and Roman Abramovich formally completed the sale of the club and the share transaction with a handshake in the centre-circle of Stamford Bridge football pitch. Recorded for posterity by the photographers, that day changed the history of our club. And a few days later, the face of the squad also began to change, taking on the look I had in mind. The first actual deal under the new regime was made official on 10 July with the acquisition of full-back Glen Johnson. He and Wayne Bridge were two players I wanted desperately, because every time we had played West Ham and Southampton they had really impressed me. Both had given Jesper Gronkjaer a very difficult time and this had attracted my attention. A second point not to be forgotten is that both signings filled another requirement of primary importance to me: they were young and English. In short, they were the ideal first two pieces of the jigsaw that I, or rather we, had in mind.

Transfer negotiations took their course, and as the press threw out a new name every day on the front pages and the fans began to dream, we got on with our preseason training, which we had decided to start on 2 July with the opening Champions League fixture less than six weeks away. The first few days were spent doing nothing more than exercising muscles in readiness for a more strenuous workout later. Right from the start of my coaching career, I have always combined fitness with work with the ball because I feel certain that the players will be more interested and more involved, and so they train better. This is an important stage of the season because you are storing up physical energy and laying the foundations for what is to come. This is all the more important in the Premiership, where the competitive side of things is absolutely fundamental. Many of my colleagues in Italy still keep faith with the ideology of exercise only at first, for a few days. My response is that you can do it all with a smile, simply by adding the ball. The programme for that first week, unlike the usual routine during the season, was based on two sessions with a break for lunch and a couple of hours’ rest at the nearby Holiday Inn. Pre-season is a time that I particularly enjoy. Everyone is meeting up again after the summer, working together, talking about their holidays (perhaps telling one another about their successes with the fair sex – though not when I’m around!) and dreaming about what ambitions might be achieved in the year ahead. This year was a little bit different for Chelsea, with fresh topics being generated daily by the new direction the club was taking.

Unfortunately, it often happens that even before the first pre-season friendly someone in the squad will pick up an injury. On this occasion, the ill fortune suffered by our keeper Macho really was cruel. Not even a week had gone by since the Austrian had started training with us when, during the morning session, he was hurt while making a clearance. We realized immediately that the injury was serious, even before an MRI scan confirmed he had ruptured cruciate ligaments and torn a cartilage in his right knee. That evening I went home very upset because although no-one was to blame, it was a severe blow for the youngster, who would now also have to face an operation and thereafter a long period of rehabilitation. I had not lost a regular first-team player, because my first-choice goalkeeper was Carlo Cudicini, but in these cases it is distressing quite simply from a human point of view.

Having received the official news of Johnson’s signing on 10 July, we set off the day after for Roccaporena in Umbria for the second part of our training camp. During my time with Cagliari and Fiorentina, I had regularly held training sessions there. The place was quiet and consequently restful, and not too hot, so that useful work could be done. No less important, the food was good, and this the lads appreciated. Here the group could really come together, in a place where individuals are a long way from London and therefore able to make friends more easily. The first time I went to Roccaporena it was practically a picnic site and nothing else. There was just one hotel with no television and only two telephone lines. Now things were very different. A local charity, the Opera Pia di Santa Rita (Roccaporena is very near the Sanctuary of St Rita of Cascia) had built and opened a new hotel with all modern conveniences. The food taken by the players was drawn up by the medical staff so as to ensure that whatever the players ate would be easily digestible and at the same time give them the nourishment they needed. For over a year now I had been Zone dieting, this involves sticking to a balanced intake of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, eating less but more often, which meant a few sacrifices. Fortunately the results have been good as I managed to lose 10kg or so, but when I was with the team I never ate anything different to them. It seemed to me only right and proper, since we were a team.

There was plenty of sweat and toil at Roccaporena, as this was the second week of training and the workloads were increased, but there were a lot of laughs too. The new arrivals had to go through their ‘initiation ceremony’, standing up on a chair and singing to the entire assembly during dinner. The proceedings were organized by John Terry and Frank Lampard, usually we would start throwing paper napkins, and finally everyone would clap. Traditionally, one of our massage team, Billy, would also stand up on a chair and entertain everyone, not by singing but by doing a bit of stand-up comedy. I must admit I didn’t understand a word of it (it was only afterwards I found out I was not the only one) but I laughed fit to burst just the same at the way he told the jokes and the way he himself was laughing at the end. This was a wonderful bonding experience, which kept morale high and brought the squad together.