LONDON: Italian Claudio Ranieri is back in the Premier League with Fulham, two years after overcoming 5,000-1 odds to win the title with Leicester City.

The 67-year-old coach was hired on Wednesday by Fulham, who announced the sacking of Slavisa Jokanovic at the same time, in a bid to beat the drop from the Premier League.

Jokanovic led Fulham into the top flight from the second-tier Championship via the playoffs last season but the 50-year-old Serbian has struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League.

After 12 games, Fulham sit bottom of the pile with just five points and one win from 12 games.

Ranieri, who led Leicester to a fairytale Premier League title in 2016, was a free agent after being sacked by French Ligue 1 club Nantes one game before the end of last season.

He has been given a “multi-year” contract by Fulham chairman Shahid Khan.

“The objective at Fulham should never be to merely survive in the Premier League,” Ranieri said in a statement.

“We must at all times be a difficult opponent and should expect to succeed. This Fulham squad has exceptional talent that is contrary to its position in the table.”

Khan thanked Jokanovic, the first managerial casualty of the season in the Premier League, for his work at the club.

“I wasn’t anticipating having to make this announcement related to Slavisa and wish the circumstances were such that I didn’t have to, but our path this season has led me to make what I know is the correct decision, at the right time, for our players, the club and our supporters,” said the Fulham chairman. Slavisa will always have my appreciation and respect for everything he did to return Fulham to top-flight football.”

The much-travelled Ranieri has worked with Valencia and Atletico Madrid in Spain, Juventus, AS Roma and Inter Milan in Italy and also had a four-year spell in England with Fulham’s neighbours Chelsea.

“Making a change without having the right answer or succession plan was not an option, so having someone of Claudio’s calibre ready to accept our challenge was comforting but, most of all, essential,” Khan said.

“Claudio is risk-free and ready-made for the Premier League, and particularly so for what we need at this moment at Fulham.

“His recent body of work with Leicester City is literally legendary, and then you look at Claudio’s experience with Chelsea and big clubs throughout Europe, and it’s pretty evident we are welcoming an extraordinary football man to Fulham Football Club.”

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2018