Manager Claudio Ranieri has said that he’ll still reward the players with a good few days off now we face a lull in the fixture list and he also gave his thoughts on Danny Simpson’s sending off against Arsenal at the weekend.
Beginning with the planned mini holiday – Ranieri confirmed in quotes carried by the Daily Mail that the players had made a bet with him that if they picked up all nine points they could have a week off and even though the nine points wasn’t hit, the gaffer is happy enough to give them the downtime anyway given their efforts so far this season.
With a free weekend for the FA Cup fixtures, whilst the points weren’t hit in games against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, he’s happy enough for the players to again let their proverbial hairdown as they keep giving him everything.
‘We make a little gamble with my players and they say to me, ‘If we make nine points will you give us one week away?’ Now we make just six points but in my mind I said, ‘OK’. I was happy with one point from City and one point today, only two points and we achieved three. I said ‘OK, it`s the same as if you won the match. Go home and we will see you next Monday.’ They deserve it. They made a fantastic performance today.’
Ranieri went on to say it’s free time and he has no idea what the players plan to do.
‘I don’t know where they go, Dubai maybe? They go wherever they want. I will spend one day in London and then I go to Rome.’
As for the Arsenal loss itself, Ranieri was questioned more about the double yellow card shown to Danny Simpson and for him it was a very harsh decision by the referee as he wasn’t consistent across the game with his decisions and he also discussed the substitutions in the game.
‘If I think about the match I am very angry because I think maybe I make mistakes but an international referee give two yellow cards for normal fouls. I wanted to make more solid the team. I lost the chance to score again – for this reason I am very angry. 11 v 11 I can tell you know we can score a second goal. You must believe what I say. Imagine with my RAF when they go in counter attack what they can do.’
He went on to add.
‘I remember the first half when we scored and there was a bad tackle from Aaron Ramsey and it was a yellow card but it is not the same yellow card when Simpson stopped the other player. Maybe because the crowd pushed a lot and put him under pressure. But I am very proud of my players. They showed a fantastic performance.’
Vital Leicester on:
Don’t let anything faze you foxes , you are the pride of the Midlands , rise above any CRAP ,he who dares wins , from brum fan