Ranieri agent calls wants answers from Chelsea

Claudio Ranieri’s agent has called on Chelsea to come clean over the Italian’s Stamford Bridge future.

After delivering an automatic Champions League place with their 1-1 draw at Manchester United, Ranieri insisted last night that his departure from the cash-rich Londoners was not automatic.

Yet there has been frenzied speculation linking Porto coach Jose Mourinho with the job and Ranieri is widely expected to depart.

Even his Italian-based advisor Vicenzo Morabito admits he is expecting a call from Blues chief executive Peter Kenyon informing him of a change of direction this summer.

But, with second place now assured and his client sitting on a lucrative contract until 2007 believed to be worth £6m (€9m), Morabito said Ranieri has no need to demand answers from the Chelsea board.

“It is up to Chelsea now,” Morabito told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.

“They need to tell him whether they want to keep Claudio. We don’t need to ask whether they like him or not because he still has three years left on his contract.

“We are not living in a another world to everyone else. We know Mourinho had talks with Chelsea before the first leg of the Monaco game and he was at Stamford Bridge for the second.

“Chelsea probably do have another plan but it is down to them to tell Claudio.”

Ranieri has been linked with the vacant Tottenham job and Morabito confirmed the former Atletico Madrid coach would like to continue his career in England.

However, he warned Mourinho that if he does take Ranieri’s place, the demand for success will be instant.

“Whoever replaces Claudio will have to win the Premiership and the Champions League because it looks like he will be replaced even though he has finished second in the league and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup,” said Morabito.

“Claudio has got a good reputation and he doesn’t deserve to be sacked.

“If Chelsea do decide to go in another direction, they should just say he is being replaced. Some people might say it is the same thing but the sometimes the use of words is quite important.”