Football
19y

Soccer-Ranieri may lose job at 1230 GMT Valencia board meeting

MADRID, Feb 25 - Claudio Ranieri's fate as
Valencia coach will be decided at an emergency meeting of the
club's board of directors at 1230 GMT on Friday.

Club president Juan Bautista Soler brought forward the
meeting, which was scheduled for Monday, after the league
champions' surprise elimination from the UEFA Cup by Steaua
Bucharest on Thursday.

Valencia, who won the competition last season, let slip a
2-0 first leg lead and lost on penalties.

The 53-year-old former Chelsea coach took over at the
Spanish champions after Rafa Benitez left for Liverpool during
the close season.

Ranieri's future was already in the balance following his
side's miserable run of form in the league. They have slipped to
sixth place after a six-game winless run.

Ranieri was adamant he was not thinking of throwing in the
towel following the defeat at Bucharest.

"Resign? I won't do it because I'm not the sort of person to
give up," he told a news conference. "I want to carry on
fighting, I never surrender.

"I don't think we have deserved to lose our recent games,
but we have done and we have to carry on because sooner or later
the bad run will come to an end."

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