Ranieri dismisses talk of records

AS Roma coach Claudio Ranieri insisted he was not interested in records ahead of Sunday’s trip to one of his former clubs Fiorentina in Serie A.

Ranieri’s team are on an incredible unbeaten run of 18 games, during which time they have won 15 of those, moved from just above the relegation zone to joint second and progressed in two cup competitions.

But the former Chelsea and Juventus boss just wants to concentrate on the three points every week.

“If it wasn’t for you lot reminding me I wouldn’t even know. It doesn’t interest me, the only thing that does is tomorrow’s (Sunday) match,” he told reporters when asked about the record.

However, Ranieri’s team is some way away from setting a record, though, they are on the third best run in the club’s history.

Only Fabio Capello, the current England manager, and Nils Liedholm, part of the legendary Swedish trio Gre-No-Li of the AC Milan team in the 1950s, have guided a Roma team on longer unbeaten runs.

Capello’s mark is within sight as the former Milan and Juventus coach took Roma on a 20-match unbeaten run in 2003-04.

Liedholm’s bar is set a little higher, though, at 35 games – 16 wins and 19 draws – spanning 11 months and two seasons in the early 1980s.

None of that, not even the fact that Roma are the form team in Serie A, matters to Ranieri, though.

“We’re still naive at times, we have weaknesses. Football is like that, even if you improve on the details you can concede an unlucky goal.

“We have to always go onto the pitch with the maximum attention to detail, ready to accept the result on the field but sure to have always given our all.”

Ranieri also remembered his time as coach of Fiorentina, when the club was rebounding from the financial turmoil that had seen it relegated to the third tier of Italian football.

“Those were four great years, we won Serie B and that wasn’t easy because for all our opponents playing us was their match of the year,” he said.

“Then we won the Italian Cup and the Supercup and it had been many years since Fiorentina had lifted a trophy.”