The inevitable question for Claudio Ranieri, the new manager of Fulham, last of all 20 clubs in the top tier with only one victory in 12 and a goal difference of –20, was a simple one: how did he assess his chances of winning the Premier League?

Not what the usual big managerial name parachuted into a club caught in the jaws of relegation gets asked, but then this is not your usual big manager. At 67 this is the 18th appointment of Ranieri’s management career, and in one particular diversion on his introduction at Craven Cottage he rhapsodised about his first job in charge of the amateurs of Vigor Lamezia. That was down in the southern province of Calabria in the mid-1980s where no-one would have noticed or cared if a young coach had fallen at the first hurdle.

Instead, 30 years on, here is Ranieri the 2016 Premier League winner, wise, flawed, admired, single-minded and back in English football to save Fulham. “I started with amateur teams,” he said. “No-one gave me a gift. I have fought for everything. I am a fighter. I want my players to be fighters – that is it. It is simple.”