Former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri has expressed interest in replacing Graeme Souness as manager of Newcastle United.

The likeable 53 year old Italian now joins the likes of Ottmar Hitzfeld and Martin O’Neill as the bookies favourites for the job of revitalising the fortunes of the struggling North East club.

Ranieri has been out of work since last February after a disappointing spell as Rafael Benetiz’s successor at Valencia but had previously led Chelsea to 2nd place in the Premiership and the semi-finals of the Champion’s League and would have a deeper knowledge of the English game than the current fan’s favourite Hitzfeld.

He said “I’ve worked in Italy, in Spain and in England, but at the top I put England. I love England because of the atmosphere and the fans. If possible, I would like to return to work in England. I am looking for another good job with a club who has ambition. Newcastle is a good team, an ambitious team. It is one of the best clubs in England.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2006 at 8:56 am and is filed under Newcastle United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.