Claudio Ranieri is probably the world’s most grateful football manager at the moment. Not only is he top of the league with a side most people tipped to go down, he’s also revitalised his managerial career, which before his stint with the Foxes was becoming something of a Greek tragedy.

Aside from overseeing Greece’s catastrophic Euro qualifying campaign, which included a loss to the Faroe Islands, he also had somewhat uninspiring spells at Monaco, Inter Milan and Roma. Nothing abysmal, after all he did get Monaco promoted back to Ligue 1 and a second place finish the year after.

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However, with a squad that, at the time, boasted such names as Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho, anything short of the latter would have been farcical.

Despite a career that would seemingly be heading straight for retirement and a villa in Sardinia, Leicester surprised many by offering him the job at the King Power Stadium. The only thing more shocking than the appointment itself was the form that Leicester started the season in, and have maintained up until now.

But if the award for most grateful manager goes to Ranieri, the award for most overlooked must surely go to Nigel Pearson, the man who single handedly transformed Leicester last term.

This was not just a transformation of a club as whole. It was a transformation that, as this season proves, ran much deeper. He’s responsible for making every player on the current Leicester team better on an individual level. The core of the team that lead them to promotion is almost identical to the core of the team that now sits atop the Premier League. That is what is truly remarkable here. Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy were all around when they were overcoming teams like Blackpool, Yeovil Town, and Doncaster Rovers.

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Of course, there have been signings. Remember, though, that the likes of Leonardo Ulloa, Robert Huth, Andrej Kramaric and Marc Albrighton were all signed by Nigel Pearson. Not to mention Esteban Cambiasso, who was instrumental in the Leicester team of last season, and a player they lost very reluctantly when he departed for Olympiacos. His replacement signed by Ranieri, Gokan Inler, from Napoli, has been something of a flop.

N’Golo Kante, who has been absolutely outstanding for the Foxes this season, will go down in the record books as a Ranieri signing. Dig a little deeper though, and it is clear that he was a man Nigel Pearson had lined up, so much so that after he was sacked, there was a very real possibility the Kante deal would be called off.

Pearson has long been a volatile manager. Last season alone, he called one journalist an ostrich, called another one a pr*ck, not to mention a seven minute argument with Pat Murphy from 5 Live. And in the end it was his son’s off the field antics that forced Leicester into firing him, because he certainly could not have got the sack on purely sporting grounds.

Leicester seemingly wanted a more clean cut, European manager. They now have that in Ranieri, but that’s really all they have. The pretty face to match the pretty performance, which was actually instigated by whole other kind of beast.

It remains to be seen how long such a combination can last without cracking.

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