If nothing succeeds like failure, Claudio Ranieri will remain in a job for a long time. At the highest level, managers tend to be judged on their record . . . what they have won . . . how much success they have brought to clubs or national teams.

Ranieri, 63, has proved to be one of football great survivors, somehow able to find another job despite winning only the Coppa Italia with Fiorentina in 1996 and the Copa del Rey in his first spell with Valencia three years later. He is the compensation king of European football, a multi-millionaire as a result of various clubs and one national association paying him off handsomely.

Since leaving Chelsea, he has been sacked from six of his last seven posts, the last being Greece, where he was in charge for four months with a record of P5, W0, D1, L4, one defeat being at home to the Faroe Islands. Giorgos Sarris, president of the Greek Football Association, said Ranieri was "the most unfortunate choice of coach."