Mourinho's T-shirt Tribute To Ranieri

Jose Mourinho has paid a unique tribute to Claudio Ranieri after the Italian was sacked by Leicester City on Thursday, months after the miracle of winning the Premier League title.

The Manchester United boss wore an adidas T-shirt which had the initials ‘CR’ printed on the chest during his press conference at the Aon Training Complex on Friday afternoon. This followed his post on Instagram on Thursday night to express his sadness after his friend lost his job at the King Power Stadium.

Ranieri’s dismissal has been met by a largely negative response in football, given that he had overseen one of the biggest shocks in sporting history by claiming the championship crown in 2015/16.

Mourinho experienced a similar situation when he left Chelsea in December 2015 while the club were still defending Premier League champions, although Jose admitted his experience cannot be compared to Ranieri at Leicester. “You know, my words is my shirt, with his name is my little homage to somebody that wrote the most beautiful history of the Premier League, somebody that probably would deserve the Leicester stadium to be named 'Claudio Ranieri' and is sacked,” Jose said on Friday.

“So I think Leicester made history two years in a row. One year because they did the most beautiful thing in the Premier League and one of the most beautiful things in football history, and now they are also in the headlines with the decision that I think has everyone in football united because it's something very, very difficult to accept. But at the same time, it's good for all of us to realise how football is at a time and we need to adapt to it. I thought last season when I was sacked as a champion, I thought it was a giant negative thing. Now, I realise that was peanuts compared with what happened to Claudio.

“So my Instagram was a little homage, my shirt is another one and I don't think he needs more homages because nobody can delete what he did and if some of the stories that I'm reading are true or have just a little bit of truth, it's difficult to find words to justify that. But it's also something that we managers have to be ready to cope with.”

Asked whether the Leicester players are to blame, the manager continued: "It's Claudio's fault because if last season instead of be champion, he finished 12th, this season he'd still be in the job because Leicester City is still to play to not be relegated. So it's his fault, he's paying for his success. 

"He's paying for his success and probably the season started with the typical selfishness of others, people thinking about new contracts, people thinking about leaving, people thinking about more money, people forgetting who helped them to reach a certain level. But this is not just football, I think it's also a bit of our world. Maybe your world too, you know. Some principles are going away a little bit so I'm really sorry about it but I leave a similar experience, I repeat, peanuts compared to the dimension of Claudio's. But there is something that nobody can do, he's the lead, the history, so, no problem Claudio, nobody can delete."