Ranieri: Leicester can be destination club

Claudio Ranieri said Leicester City are capable of becoming a destination club in the Premier League.

The Italian, undertaking his first role in the English top flight since taking charge of Chelsea from 2000-04, said he wants to turn Leicester into an attractive place for big names in just their second season back in the Premier League.

Leicester’s 14th-place finish in 2014-15 was their first campaign back in the top flight since 2004, when Ranieri was at Stamford Bridge.

Ranieri said Leicester could do what Napoli did in the late 1980s/early 90s when bringing Diego Maradona to the club, and make King Power Stadium the place to be. 

“I remember when nobody wanted to go to Napoli. But after Maradona, everyone wants to go to Napoli,” said Ranieri, who coached Napoli from 1991-93.

“If we start to build maybe, in three or four years, a lot of players will want to come to Leicester. Why not?

“Our chairman wants to build a very good team and that’s why I’m here.

“We want to build our foundation and with a big foundation you can then build the first floor, second floor and everything.”

Ranieri has bolstered Leicester’s squad, bringing in the likes of Gokhan Inler, Yohan Benalouane, N’Golo Kante, Shinji Okazaki – but narrowly missing out on Charles Aranguiz, who opted to move to Bayer Leverkusen instead.