Claudio Ranieri may be thinking twice about his decision not to allow Leonardo Ulloa to leave Leicester.
The striker’s unhappy situation is but a microcosm of the Foxes’ downturn in fortunes over the last eight months.
It didn’t take long for the camp to split at the Premier League champions. Their 3-0 defeat to Southampton on Sunday means they have set the record for the worst title defence at this stage of the season.
Despite all this, Ulloa is still finding his opportunities limited.
The 30-year-old has handed in a transfer request, but having seen it turned down, his agent has now embarked on a bizarre rant about Ranieri which is not likely to go down well.
“As the agent of Ulloa, I’m tired of the lies of Claudio Ranieri and (Leicester director of football) Jon Rudkin,” he told the Sun.
“On Leicester’s pre-season tour of the United States, Ranieri promised Ulloa he would not buy another attacker.
“But he bought Islam Slimani and then promised Ulloa that he could leave Leicester and did not comply.
“And Ranieri promised Ulloa that he would get a contract renewal and he did not fulfil it – so Ulloa has decided to officially request a transfer.
“Yet now Ranieri, in a confused message to the press, says he believes Ulloa will remain in Leicester when it is not true.”
“Ranieri is behaving like a selfish, egocentric egotist, who does not care about the suffering of a man who fought for him and helped win the Premier League title.
“The manager is destroying Ulloa’s career in forcing him to stay in Leicester and this season has only started him in one Premier League match.
“The manager wants to force him to stay to play two games a year – when he has Jamie Vardy, Slimani and Shinji Okazaki. We will not allow it.”
Wow. All this isn’t entirely Ranieri’s fault, as Ulloa has been injured, but the Argentine isn’t likely to get too much game time if his representatives carry on like that.
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