Ranieri reaping rewards of Pearson’s work, says Pulis

Published 10/30/2015, 9:57 AM EDT

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REUTERS – Leicester City’s impressive form this season is down to former manager Nigel Pearson more than current coach Claudio Ranieri, West Bromwich Albion boss Tony Pulis has said ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with the Foxes.

Under Pearson, Leicester were rock bottom for most of last season but pulled off a great escape to stay up after winning seven of their last nine matches to finish 14th.

Despite guiding the Foxes to top-flight safety, Pearson, who is known for his blunt personality and no-nonsense approach, was sacked in June because of a breakdown in his relationship with the club’s owners.

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Ranieri took over at Leicester the following month and Pulis feels the Italian has been reaping the rewards of Pearson’s work ever since.

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“Ranieri has benefited from all the work Nigel has put in. It’s very, very nice to step into a football club where everything is in place and at that club it looks like everything is in place,” Pulis told reporters at his pre-match news conference.

“Last season was a remarkable achievement and Claudio has picked it up and carried it on. It’s difficult for me to say but let’s not forget the work Nigel did, the three, four years he was at that club putting them in a position for Claudio now to push on,” he added.

With Jamie Vardy and winger Riyad Mahrez firing on all cylinders in the early part of the new season, Leicester are fifth after 10 games, three points behind leaders Manchester City.

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West Brom, who sit 10th in the table, will hope to continue their streak, with a third win in as many games on Saturday.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Toby Davis)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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