Ranieri wants to stay with his ‘baby’

CLAUDIO RANIERI’S reputation is growing with every victory, but if it gets to the point where he is wanted by other big clubs then Chelsea fans need not fear - for the Italian will not desert his “baby”.

The Blues boss feels he has "grown up" with the club in the last three years, and he believes there is no better place to be than at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea will be aiming to hold on to top spot in the Premiership by beating Bolton at home today, and Ranieri will not rest until he captures the title.

"This club is in my veins, it is part of me," said Ranieri. "I have grown up in the last three years with this club in my blood and the team is my baby.

"I wasn't a champion as a player. A lot of people are lucky enough to manage a big team at the start, whereas I began with an amateur team, right at the bottom, and I am very satisfied because I have continued to work my way up.

"Of course everybody wants to do something better, but I enjoy Chelsea a lot. I don't think at the moment you can get much better than Chelsea.

"Since I arrived I always said I wanted to win the league. It is not that easy to battle against Manchester United and Arsenal. Now I hope in the spring, as Alex Ferguson predicted recently, we are in there fighting.

"I want us to stay in the pack. At the moment it is not important to be top of the league, we just need to be up there with them.

"At the beginning I didn't think about what we could do, I just wanted to build a team and work, and the matches would show what we could do. Last December we were close to Arsenal and United but they started to win and win, whereas we drew a lot.

"This season it is so far, so good, but the league season is very long and we cannot afford to make mistakes because Arsenal and United don't make them we have to continue in this way."

The bad news for Bolton is that Chelsea have won every league game that has followed a midweek Champions League match this season, and Ranieri was focusing on Sam Allardyce's men the minute they had completed their Group G clinching victory over Besiktas on Tuesday.

"The big teams have the quality that after a Champions League match they can focus on the next match. That is what I want to see here. That is one step, and others follow.

"After Besiktas I said to the players we must immediately focus on Bolton because that is my mind-set.

"I am Tinkerman off the pitch as well because suddenly I can change my focus to the next game like that."