Fulham fire Slavisa Jokanovic, replace him with Claudio Ranieri

The Italian famously lead Leicester City to the Premier League title in 2016.

Newly-promoted side Fulham had a dismal start to their Premier League campaign as they lost 9 games out of the opening 12 games while managing to secure just one win. As a measure to overcome their frailties, the club announced the appointment of Claudio Ranieri as their new manager who comes as a replacement to the departing Slavisa Jokanovic.

Jokanovic, who joined the club in 2015, led the Cottagers to a club-record 23-game unbeaten run last season in the Championship, following which they earned promotion to the Premier League. The Serbian, in his three full seasons at the Craven Cottage, averaged a win-percentage of 44.1 in as many as 145 games. His sacking of late, was expected by many as Fulham produced a string of poor results.

On the other hand, Ranieri, who spent the last season at French club Nantes will make a return to the Premier League after a year. The Italian during his time with Leicester City, famously led the Foxes to a fairy-tale title win in 2016. However, he was sacked during the following season as Leicester badly struggled for form.

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Ranieri, now, faces a huge responsibility of helping the Cottagers revive their season. During his meet with the media, the 67-year-old spoke about how he is respectful of the club and its owners and that it is necessary for the team to step up their game to be one of the tough teams in the league. “It is an honour to accept Mr. Khan’s [Shahid] invitation and opportunity to lead Fulham, a fantastic club with tradition and history.”

“The objective at Fulham should never be to merely survive in the Premier League. We must at all times be a difficult opponent and should expect to succeed.”

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The former Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus and Roma gaffer went on to praise the current squad saying, “This Fulham squad has exceptional talent that is contrary to its position in the table. I know this team is very capable of better performances, which we will work on straight away as we prepare for Southampton at the Cottage.”

Ranieri will need to focus especially on the defence as they have conceded 31 goals this season, 6 more than any other team. With his first game in charge of his new club against the Saints is due after the ongoing international break, the Cottagers will face his old clubs Chelsea and Leicester City both in the first week of December.