Claudio Ranieri will steel himself and try to fight back the tears. ‘I’m a very shy man,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I don’t want to show my emotions. If I am ready, I can be very calm. If I am surprised sometimes little tears happen.’
This occasion, however, might be a test for the Roman as he returns to Leicester City on Sunday for the first time in competition. An opponent and a friend, in a stadium where his smiling features are prominent on photographs and pre-match highlights reels.
Sacked but not forgotten, just as he harbours no animosity and has wished the club well since his exit a mere nine months after winning the Premier League title, the 5,000-1 miracle, and that spine-tingling presentation when he stood beside his friend Andrea Bocelli as the tenor sang Nessun Dorma in a Leicester shirt.