Former Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri says he hasn’t uttered his ‘Dilly-Ding, Dilly-Dong’ catchphrase since leaving the club. The former Foxes favourite also regularly used the phrase in press conferences during Leicester’s title-winning season in 2016. After guaranteeing City’s participation in the Champions League, Ranieri famously walked into a press conference
Claudio Ranieri said: “We are in the Champions League, dilly-ding, dilly-dong. It’s fantastic, terrific. Well done to everybody, the owners, the fans, the players, the staff, everybody involved in it.”
But after being unveiled as the new Watford manager, Ranieri has revealed that he hasn’t uttered the phrase since leaving Leicester.
Claudio Ranieri said: “After ‘Dilly-Ding, Dilly-Dong’ at Leicester, I never say this. I don’t know why. I did this also with my little, when she was younger, my little daughter. Dilly-Ding, Dilly-Dong’, when I say, ‘Hey come on, wake up, wake up’. But after Leicester, never more. I don’t know why.”
During the press conference, when asked about his ambitions for the season, Ranieri used a mantra that may be familiar to City fans, with the manager referring to comments he made throughout the 2015/16 season.
Claudio Ranieri said: “Remember what I used to say at Leicester? Forty points, forty points, forty points. Then next season we can look at 41, then 42, then 43.”