How Claudio Ranieri’s Roma nearly scuppered Inter’s legendary treble

“He is right with what he said. I am very demanding of myself and I have to win to be sure of things. This is why I have won so many trophies in my career,” was Jose Mourinho's modest answer to Claudio Ranieri in the first months of his tenure at Inter.

“Ranieri, on the other hand, has the mentality of someone who doesn't need to win.

“He is almost seventy years old. He has won a Super Cup and another minor trophy, and he is too old to change his mentality. He's old and hasn't won anything yet.'

Ranieri was only 56 at the time – something Mourinho almost certainly knew. Now – sixteen years later – he is actually 73 if Mourinho fancies a more accurate repeat.

“I studied Italian five hours a day for months to ensure I could communicate with the players, the media and the fans,” Mourinho added. “Ranieri had been in England for five years and still had difficulty saying 'good morning' and 'good afternoon'.”

While Mourinho cemented his status as Chelsea's A Special One – by doing what his predecessor couldn't quite manage – by turning Roman Abramovich's millions into major accolades, Ranieri saw his reputation faltered by short and unsuccessful spells as manager of Valencia and Parma.

Yet the Italian was tasked to take over at newly promoted Juventus in 2007 after Didier Deschamps fell out with the board. He inherited a team with Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Pavel Nedved, David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero as the Old Lady looked to quickly heal the scars of Calciopoli.

Ranieri led Juventus to a respectable third-place finish in their first season back, with orders to go a few steps further when Mourinho – the sexiest name in football management at the time – took over at champions Inter in 2008.

Juve did take a step forward – second, not third – but the goals had dried up as Trezeguet was sidelined for most of the campaign with a groin injury. Inter had enough – with an excellent Zlatan Ibrahimovic firing in the goals – to continue their domestic dominance under Mourinho in charge, moving to a fourth successive Scudetto with a ten-point lead.

Inter's Portuguese coach was at his sharpest and most confident, refusing to back down from verbal fights when he felt slighted by journalists or rival coaches.

Not for the first time, Ranieri found himself in Mourinho's crosshairs during an extended tirade against the media, Roma, Milan and Juve following a controversial decision to award Mario Balotelli a penalty in a 3-3 draw against Roma.

“The greatest amount of intellectual manipulation has taken place. There was a concerted, organized effort to manipulate public opinion. It was fantastic work, but it has nothing to do with my world – I work in football,” Mourinho claimed as Inter neared the finish line in 2009.

“I don't like intellectual prostitution, I like honesty. In recent days, no one has said that Roma has great players but will end the season without a title. Nobody said that Milan have eleven points less than us and will end the season without a title.

“No one has talked about Juventus, which gained so many points thanks to referee errors. We only won one match thanks to a mistake and that was the Siena match.

'Ranieri said he stands shoulder to shoulder with Luciano Spalletti? Well, I side with all the coaches who have fouled Juventus – Cesare Prandelli, Pasquale Marino, Gigi Del Neri.”

Ranieri was sacked shortly before the end of the 2008–09 season after Juventus fell out of the title race in a run of seven winless games, while Mourinho signed a contract extension to cement his future at San Siro.

As Mourinho prepared for a second season in charge, rising Juventus, with Fabio Cannavaro making an ill-fated return after three years at the Bernabeu, were still seen as Inter's likeliest challengers. Carlo Ancelotti and Kaka had left Milan, while Roma finished a distant sixth.

Luciano Spaletti had guided Roma to the Supercoppa and Coppa Italia, as well as to second place in Serie A, during the 2007–08 season, but the following year they struggled to maintain the same standards. After Roma started the 2009/10 season with consecutive defeats to Genoa and Juve, Spaletti resigned.

After a summer break, Ranieri quickly found a job again at his hometown club, which he supported in his youth. But few, if any, pundits expected Roma to compete seriously with the journeyman coach at the helm – not least Mourinho, who apparently did not consider Ranieri a rival, with every passing mention dripping with patronizing contempt.

“Everyone knows Ranieri is not a top coach, but he is not expected to win the Scudetto. The target at the moment is the mid-range, so Roma has opted for a mid-range coach,” wrote Sergio Stanco, editor of GOAL Italia, in an opinion piece in response to the appointment.

And when the Giallorossi lost three Serie A games in a row in a series of fraught battles full of bookings and red cards at the end of October, Roma found themselves in 14th place, two points clear of the relegation zone.

The only question was whether they could salvage a place in the Europa League, let alone make a title push. Inter had started the season like a train and had a lead of fourteen points after ten games.

What happened next, against all odds, was one of the most exciting and hard-fought title races European football has ever seen.

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READ: A comparison of Claudio Ranieri's eight best teams: Fiorentina, Chelsea, Leicester…

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Slowly but surely, Ranieri's Roma began to find form and held Inter to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro as they embarked on a 24-match unbeaten run. When the winter break arrived, they were in fourth place, but eleven points behind Mourinho's leaders.

In the new year, Roma began to combine brilliant performances with gritty 1-0 victories. They looked like a title-winning side. Mirko Vucinic and Francesco Totti routinely produced match-winning displays, while Daniele De Rossi was at the height of his powers and looked every bit a world-class midfielder.

Ranieri's men took 40 of the first 48 points available, winning 12 and drawing four after the winter break. Meanwhile, Juventus sank into mid-table obscurity since their decision to sack him.

Meanwhile, Inter were faltering. Their comfortable lead kept shrinking. They failed to win consecutive matches between January and April and continually dropped points on their travels, failing to win in Bari, Parma, Napoli, Catania, Palermo and Fiorentina.

By the end of March, and their visit to the Stadio Olimpico, Inter's season seemed on the brink of complete collapse. Mourinho's man for the moment, Diego Milito, canceled out De Rossi's early opener, but Luca Toni – during a memorable half-season loan spell from Bayern Munich – came up with an iconic match winner that resulted in one of the loudest roars in history of the club. Eternal city. No Gladiator could muster such a moment.

All season Ranieri had minimized his side's chances of doing the impossible, just as he had done at Juventus and just as he would do at Leicester. But when Roma moved within a point of first place with seven games to go, the tinker allowed himself to dream.

“We've come out of the last corner and now we're on the final straight, one meter behind Inter,” Ranieri said after their 2-1 win over Inter.

“We have reopened the title race, now it will be a test of nerves. For five months we chased and sacrificed ourselves for the cause; Now we have defeated a stratospheric team that deserves our compliments.”

An early Europa League exit to Panathinaikos at the first knockout hurdle allowed Roma to focus on domestic affairs while Inter made their way deep into the Champions League.

Not only did the Giallorossi get in Inter's way in Serie A – even briefly taking top spot in April with five games to go – but they were also their opponents in the Coppa Italia final.

But it was at this point, with their backs against the wall and in grave danger of crashing and burning, that Mourinho's Inter did what the truly great sides do and rose to produce some of their best performances when necessary.

The counter-attacking masterclasses presented to Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals and final were their most famous victories, but they were forced to be just as good at home as the league and cup went to the wire.

Milito, as he so often did in the decisive matches at the business end of Inter's historic treble, came up with the decisive intervention and scored the only goal of the match in the Coppa final at the Olimpico, while a frustrated Totti was sent off in the match. the dying moments.

After going top with three points against Atalanta, Ranieri's Roma retained their place at the top the following week in a full-blooded derby against Lazio, peppered by twelve yellow cards and one red, but most importantly a 2-1 victory.

But a week later they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat at home against Sampdoria. Totti had given Roma an early lead, but a Giampaolo Pazzini brace in the second half was enough to destroy their title hopes. Just as you would be brave to mention Steven Gerrard's slip in the red half of Merseyside, Pazzini is a name best avoided in Rome.

It was Roma's only defeat of the last 28 in Serie A, while they have won eight of the last nine, but it was enough to cost them. Inter took advantage by winning their last five in a row to take 19 of the 21 points on offer after their defeat in the capital.

After all, history is written by the victors, which is why Roma will be remembered as one of the best teams and Ranieri is destined to become a near-man – until Leicester, of course.

After all, it was Ranieri's wonder Foxes who delivered a 2-1 victory over Mourinho's Chelsea in December 2015, leaving them top of the table and their opponents just a point above the relegation zone.

Mourinho was subsequently sacked but – apparently water under the bridge – he showed support for Ranieri after his dismissal from the King Power the following year, wearing CR on his training top during his press conference.

Ranieri returned to Roma at the end of the 2018/19 season for a two-month emergency spell. “Sir. Ranieri, in our moment of great need you answered. Now you receive the tribute of your people,” read one banner and the veteran coach struggled to hold back tears on the touchline in his first match back in charge at the Olimpico.

Now he is back again, for a third spell, with Roma as their third manager of the 2024/25 season, once again in their time of need.

Mourinho has since done something Ranieri never quite could and delivered silverware for the Giallorossi. But he never quite surpassed the love the Eternal City has for one of her favorite sons.

By Nestor Watach