No manager can ever be unsackable - but Ranieri's reserve of credit was as close to limitless as it gets after performing a sporting miracle to win the title last season.
It is the second season in succession a Premier League-winning manager has failed to survive the following campaign.
Jose Mourinho was a perfect example he also was sacked by Chelsea after he was a champion in 2015. Mourinho, however, was at a club with a high turnover of managers that had enjoyed huge successes - he had not pulled perennial strugglers from near the bottom to top of the table in the blink of an eye.
Many will regard Leicester's treatment of Ranieri as a cut-throat act from an ownership who should give him thanks every day for giving them a success and a story they would have regarded as an imagination when they appointed him.
Ranieri took Leicester from 14th to first with a style built on solid defence, fierce organisation and a thrilling counter-attacking style based around Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. He was the master man-manager, taking all the pressure and letting his players fly.
It is almost the thought that dare not speak its name amid the wave of shock, outrage and disgust at Leicester's decision to ruthlessly dismiss the hugely popular 65-year-old, who won the hearts of all supporters with his good humour, class and dignity as he led the Foxes to the title.
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, a former Leicester and England striker, tweeted: "After all that Claudio Ranieri has done for Leicester City, to sack him now is inexplicable, unforgivable and gut-wrenchingly sad."
Lineker echoed the thoughts of the majority who aired their views publicly - but is there actually method in what many see at the madness of the club's Thai owners?
Leicester's fall has been more dramatic than anything they could have foreseen in their worst nightmares.
There is no doubt there is some real unease among Leicester's fans about Ranieri's sacking, and how it reflects on the image of the club supported so fervently by neutrals - and just about any club that could not win the title - last season.
Leicester were having relegation wished on them on social media on Thursday by those whose hearts they won last year.
The manner in which Ranieri has been shown off the premises has prompted questions about basic loyalty and decency in football, and how a manager who made Leicester a worldwide feelgood sports story can be treated in such a way.
And surely his success last season proved the fact that he could still keep Leicester in the Premier League? Ranieri is experienced, up for the fight and had a reservoir of goodwill last season to call on.
Sadly for this most amiable and classy of men, the reservoir ran dry on Thursday Leaving no drop of gratitude.
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