Page "Claudio Ranieri" Paragraph 9

That season saw Chelsea break club records for the least number of goals conceded and highest number of points in a season.

Former English footballer and pundit David Platt used the example of Ranieri to illustrate his observation that " building a team that can win the title and actually steering this team to the title are two different matters entirely.

" On 31 May 2004, after almost a year of speculation, which included the club's well-publicized courting of Eriksson, he was finally relieved of his coaching duties at Chelsea, and his job went to José Mourinho, who had led Porto to successive European triumphs.

In Ranieri's four seasons Chelsea improved their points total season on season.

The core of the Chelsea team which won two Premier League titles under Mourinho, including John Terry, Petr Čech, Arjen Robben, William Gallas, Claude Makélélé, and Frank Lampard were all brought to Chelsea or nurtured by Ranieri.

Ranieri published in September 2004 a book named Proud Man Walking chronicling his last year at Chelsea.

All proceeds went to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.