They may not sit side by side on television anymore but Eamon Dunphy and John Giles remain in sync on most of the big issues.
According to his Star colleague Kieran Cunningham, Dunphy will often be uncontactable during a Champions League game. Once the match is over, they'll be able to get through to Eamo who'll inform them he's been on the phone to John for most of the past hour.
Both are on the same page on the Claudio Ranieri question. While the romantics wail that there's no loyalty in the game anymore and splutter that "the game is gone", these two elder statesmen, who remember the game back in the 60s, have come to view that Ranieri had to go.
Indeed, both Dunphy and Giles seem to have come to the provocative conclusion that Nigel Pearson's team won the Premier League. Ranieri merely kept the show on the road and had the good sense to leave everything well alone.
According to Giles in the Evening Herald
He (Ranieri) was a perfect man for a very unusual set of circumstances. Managers are sacked because they don't get results. Pearson went because he couldn't control his temper. But he obviously left behind a very well-organised group of players and his imprint lasted well after Ranieri arrived and was wise enough to understand what he had stumbled upon.
Likewise, Dunphy, talking to RTE, credits Nigel Pearson and, to a even greater extent, club scout Steve Walsh for building the League winning team. Though he does acknowledge that he guided them to the title.
I don’t think it’s inexplicable. it’s a very unusual story.
It wasn’t his team. Nigel Pearson had been the coach previously and Steve Walsh had been the chief scout who found all these wonderful players.
So really Ranieri had nothing to do with building the team but he did guide them to the Premier League title. It was extraordinary.
Dunphy gruffly insists that Leicester did the right thing in sacking Ranieri. Survival is vitally important to them. No room for sentimentality, etc, etc.
Both cite the sale of Kante as a critical moment. We know from the stories of their long late night phone conversations that the two of them had teased that out.
