Claudio Ranieri Reveals His Target For Next Season

For the first half of the season Claudio Ranieri talked about taking one game at a time, then getting to 40 points, then the chance of European football and then, one dilly ding dilly dong later they were Champions of England. But where will they finish next season?

After a draw at Old Trafford on Sunday and a first half 2-0 lead for Spurs at Stamford Bridge last night it looked like Claudio Ranieri would have to wait till at least Saturday to win the league and the pressure would start to mount. However a second half fight back from Chelsea resulted in the Foxes winning the title.

That means the Italian and his men can enjoy their remaining two games of the season at home against Everton and away to the club who sacked him because they'd never win the league with him in charge, Chelsea, who will have to give him and his team a guard of honour.

Speaking to Rai 3's Processo del Lunedi show the former Greece boss talked about next season's expectations saying:

"I am 64 years old, I've been fighting for a long time, but I was always positive and had positivity on my side.

"I am staying at Leicester. This is a year that cannot be repeated, next year we'll try to fight for a top-10 place, hopefully. We must continue to grow and to do well."

Already the odds of Ranieri's side winning the league and getting relegated next season are pretty close with a back-to-back title available at 40/1 and a bottom three finished priced at 50/1 so tenth seems like a pretty good shout based on the bookies. Then again they had the Foxes at 5000/1 to win the league this season so what do they know?

Leicester will have a real challenge on their hands to retain the title or even get anywhere near it with Spurs likely to challenge again whilst Arsenal will finish third or fourth. Manchester City will rebuild under Pep Guardiola, Chelsea are likely to come back stronger whilst Manchester United and Liverpool may also challenge.

Add the new pressure they'll be under and the increase in matches due to being in the Champions League and who knows how their season will pan out.

All that said no one expected them to do this once so ruling it out for a second time would just be stupidity.

Where do you think Leicester will finish next season?

(h/t Metro)

Topics: Leicester City, Claudio Ranieri, Football, Premier League

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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