Fulham chairman Shahid Khan announced via a statement on the club's website on Wednesday morning that Slavisa Jokanovic had been sacked and replaced by Ranieri, who memorably led Leicester to the title in 2016. The Italian has been given a “multi-year” contract as Fulham hope a change of manager will lift them off the bottom of the table, after Jokanovic managed just five points from 12 Premier League matches.

It is a disappointing return for a club who were among the Premier League's highest spenders in the summer, shelling out approximately £100million to bolster their squad following promotion from the Championship via the play-offs.

Jean Michael Seri, previously linked with Barcelona, was among the eye-catching arrivals, while World Cup winner Andre Schurrle also signed, as well as Aleksandar Mitrovic and Alfie Mawson. Ranieri believes there is “exceptional talent” in the Fulham squad and he is already looking up the table ahead of what will be his first game in charge against fellow strugglers Southampton at Craven Cottage on November 24.

“It is an honour to accept Mr Khan's invitation and opportunity to lead Fulham, a fantastic club with tradition and history,” said Ranieri, who has had a spell in charge of French Ligue 1 side Nantes since leaving Leicester in February 2017.

“The objective at Fulham should never be to merely survive in the Premier League. We must at all times be a difficult opponent and should expect to succeed.

“This Fulham squad has exceptional talent that is contrary to its position in the table. I know this team is very capable of better performances, which we will work on straight away as we prepare for Southampton at the Cottage.” Ranieri gained his first experience of the Premier League at Fulham's neighbours Chelsea, where he was in charge between 2000 and 2004, but it is the job he did at Leicester which will live in the memory.

The Italian overcame odds of 5,000-1 to steer the Foxes to the Premier League title, the only top-flight championship of his long managerial career.

Claudio Ranieri (left) took charge of his first Fulham training session on Thursday

Claudio Ranieri felt that he "needed to come back to England" after being announced as Fulham's new manager on Wednesday.

The 67-year-old Italian was sacked at Leicester in February 2017, just nine months after leading the Foxes to the Premier League title at odds of 5,000-1.

Ranieri is set for his first full press conference as Fulham manager around 3pm on Friday, live on Sky Sports News, while it will also be blogged on the Sky Sports website and app.

2:31 Sky Sports News takes a look at Claudio Ranieri's funniest moments during his title-winning spell as Leicester boss However, speaking to Fulham's official website, he said: "I felt I needed to come back to England.

"I went abroad last season to finish my story, but my feeling for English football is so strong that I felt I had to come back.

"What I've achieved is in the past. I always look forward and want more, I hope to do a very good job.

"Craven Cottage is amazing. When I first arrived here I thought, 'Wow!' It is a story in itself. "Often I came to watch matches at Fulham because of my love of football. I came to the very first game of the season against Crystal Palace. "Fulham showed very good football and it was unbelievable how they conceded two goals. Often this season Fulham have conceded too many goals. "It's not only the full-back, or the goalkeeper. When you attack, you attack as 11, when you defend, you defend as 11."

Tony Gale says Claudio Ranieri will make Fulham more disciplined and will improve their chances of avoiding relegation Ranieri, who managed Chelsea between 2001 and 2004, has already met the Fulham players after taking charge of his first training session at Motspur Park on Thursday.

He says his priority upon taking over at Craven Cottage is to sort out Fulham's leaky defence which has seen the club slip to rock bottom in the Premier League table, with one win in 12 games, conceding 31 goals in the process.

Danny Higginbotham told Sky Sports News that Fulham have gone backwards since winning the Sky Bet Championship play-off final last season and has backed Ranieri to get them out of trouble. Fulham approached former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger before appointing Ranieri, while ex-boss Slavisa Jokanovic claims he could have "turned things around" before his sacking on Wednesday. Ranieri's first game in charge will come after the international break at home to fellow strugglers Southampton, before games against two of his former clubs, Chelsea and Leicester.

After spending over 100 million on new signings, Fulham enters November sitting bottom of the Premier League table on pace for the worst defensive showing in league history, it was time for a change before things couldn’t be turned around. The board deemed that the players weren’t the issue and decided that it was time to part ways with manager Slavisa Jokanovic who won them promotion to the Premier League only six months ago. If it wasn’t clear before that Fulham is a club with ambition, it should be now especially since they brought in Premier League winning manager Claudio Ranieri to replace Jokanovic.

The Tinkerman (a nickname that should probably be left in the past) pulled off one of the most impressive feats in world football by winning the Premier League with Leicester City. But the year after, he was let go due to lackluster results with the Foxes. Ranieri’s counter-attacking 4-4-2 took the league by storm and Fulham will hope that there is some magic left in the tank to turn things around. Between Leicester and now, Ranieri spent a spell in charge of Nantes in Ligue 1 which came to an awkward end with reports of a rift between he and the chairman.

Coming into Fulham, Ranieri seems like a good choice as he is a manager who is well liked by his players and will bring much-needed structure to a team in need of it. With Leicester, Ranieri settled on a pretty consistent formation in a 4-4-2 but with Fulham, we’ll likely see a version of the 4-4-2 of a 4-4-1-1 depending on how Ranieri feels about the personnel. I’ll be taking a look at how his appointment may impact things moving forward at Craven Cottage.

For the most part, Fulham has lined up in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 formation under Joanovic meaning that the players should be well prepared for the shift. The main question will be what personnel will use the international break as an opportunity to impress their new boss.

How will Fulham line up under Ranieri? Ranieri’s success at Leicester City was based on the back of a counter-attacking 4-4-2 with two defensive-minded sixes in the middle of the park. Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy may have been the finishers for the Foxes but it was Danny Drinkwater and N'Golo Kante who made the machine work. Looking at the current side, Fulham won't be able to perfectly replicate this setup because there is no proper partner for Jean Michael-Seri to make things tick.

But if Ranieri is okay with sacrificing defensive cover, Tom Cairney is capable of sitting deep as is Stefan Johansen. I'm leaving out Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa here because he hasn’t been effective while playing and I’m not sure that The attacking players pick themselves, but that’s also not the chief problem facing Fulham right now.

It’s the defense.
A defense that is giving up 2.58 goals per game, by far the worst in the Premier League. Ranieri likes his players to build out of the back and also likes his fullbacks to bomb forward which is not in Maxime le Marchlands game. This is why I’m penciling in Joe Bryan as the starter while healthy. Interchanging with Ryan Sessegnon on the left can be an electric partnership for the cottagers.

At center back, I’m putting Alfie Mawson and Tim Ream because Ranieri likes to build out of the back to advance play. In order to properly do that, his center backs need to be comfortable receiving the ball at their feet in pressure. Mawson is the best defensive center back on the roster and while he’s not the greatest with the ball at his feet, he is competent.

This is where Ream comes in. With experience at right back and as a central defensive midfielder he’s very adept with the ball at his feet and while Ream may not be the most stout defensively, there is a reason that he was player of the year each of the previous two years for Fulham. To play a possession-based game, having Ream at the back is necessary. Along the backline, Fulham doesn’t have to be good defensively to avoid relegation they only need to stop hemorrhaging goals at the back which isn’t a high bar to clear.

Now that we’ve gone through the fit for the squad, let’s take a look at who has the most to gain and lose from an FPL perspective.

Stock Up
Luciano Vietto: Being stuck out wide to accommodate a three-man front line hasn’t been the greatest for Vietto’s FPL value and he has still racked up four assists on the year. Under Ranieri, Vietto would be expected to play as support striker while Andre Schurrle does more of the wide work. This will hopefully lead to him finally scoring some goals on the season but will definitely lead to a bigger fantasy output especially in draft leagues. Owned in 38 percent of Fantrax leagues, Vietto is the guy with the most to gain from this move in the fantasy sports world.

Joe Bryan: The only thing that stopped him from becoming the regular left back at Fulham was a hamstring injury so this is a bit of a cop-out but looking at left-backs who have thrived under Ranieri, there’s a lot to like about Bryan. Christian Fuchs and Ben Chilwell had Ranieri spoiled for choice at the position and he’ll have the same issue here with Sessegnon and Bryan. Bryan has more to gain due to being listed as a defender, however. Earlier in the season, Bryan was on pace with Marcos Alonso in terms of key passes and he should slot right back in as an ultra-attacking left back. While he’ll still be hit when Fulham concedes, he’ll swing more than a few matchups like Patrick van Aanholt.

Jean Michael Seri: Seri has been a revelation and by far the most useful Fulham asset on the season but with consistent structure around him, things will only get better. We already know that Seri can stuff a stat sheet with one goal and two assists to go along with 1.8 tackles per game and 2.3 key passes per game. This shows that his numbers should only go up with a consistent formation around him. Seri will likely end the season around where we expected Naby Keita to be with 5-7 goals and assists which makes him usable in any format.

Stock down
Aleksandar Mitrovic: Alright, a new manager comes in, great for the top option up top right? Well… not always. Mitrovic profited because he was the only option scoring for Fulham and that the entire attack funneled to him. But in a (likely) 4-4-2 he’ll have to share the wealth with Vietto up top. Mitrovic is only putting 1.2 of his 3.6 shots per game on target and both of these numbers will fall without him being the most central player. A striker needs chances to score and fewer chances is never a good thing. This isn’t to say that Mitrovic will be useless during the duration of the season but more that 10-12 goals are likely his ceiling.

Ryan Sessegnon: The English hype machine got Sessegnon picked much earlier in leagues than he should have been and now with him not being part of a front three in the move to a 4-4-2, it means that there will be less of an opportunity for goals and assists as Sessegnon looks to fill the Marc Albrighton workhorse role. While this is a vital role on the pitch, for fantasy owners, it’s not too important.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa: It was a head scratcher when he was purchased for 30 million from Marseille and nothing that Anguissa has done on the pitch has helped his case. He seems like more of a liability than anything as he has been unable to deal with the pace of the Premier League. Likely being relegated to bench duty under Ranieri, it will be a while before he ever makes an impact with Fulham. Can Ranieri save Fulham?
While it’s good that Ranieri had the international break with some of his players, it will be tough to implement his system overnight. It will take time and the beginning will likely be rough but this is a Fulham team that is too good to go down. On paper, there are at least 3-5 teams in the Premier League who are worse than the Cottagers including Crystal Palace and Southampton.

I’m anticipating that Fulham will finish 14th in the league. The players are good enough to stave off the drop, they just needed a man with a plan at the helm. In Ranieri, they got that man.

RICHARD Osman was once named Britain's "weirdest crush", and given that he is 6ft 7ins it's hard for him to fly under the radar.

You probably know him from the long-running BBC quiz show Pointless, but what other TV hits has the 47-year-old been involved in? Here's everything we know about the presenter... Richard was born in Billericay, Essex, on November 28, 1970. His brother is Suede bassist and founding member Mat Osman. The boys grew up in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, and went to school nearby at Warden Park.

Which TV programmes has Richard Osman been in?

After graduating from Cambridge in 1992, Richard began working as a script editor on Total Wipeout. The Fulham FC season ticket holder also wrote the sitcom Boyz Unlimited, starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas. He pitched the idea for Pointless and became a co-presenter when it launched in 2009. He is jokingly referred to as Alexander's "pointless friend" on the show. Until then, Richard had worked exclusively behind the scenes - as a producer on Deal Or No Deal, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and 10 O'Clock Live. He has since worked as a presenter on Two Tribes, a team captain on Insert Name Here, and as the presenter of Channel 4 show Child Genius. He often guest presents The One Show and has appeared multiple times on both Have I Got News For You? and Would I Lie To You? Richard has a new show on BBC Two called Richard Osman's House of Games which sees four famous faces test their general knowledge skills by taking part in trivia based games.

What else is Richard Osman famous for?

He's the creative director at mammoth TV company Endemol. The business is famous for shows such as Deal Or No Deal and Million Pound Drop. He's explained that before he became known on screen he was happy behind the scenes. He said: “I was very happy getting on with my career, working behind the scenes on a lot of shows.”

Is Richard Osman married?

Thanks to Pointless' cult following, Richard became an 'unlikely heartthrob' and won Heat magazine's Weirdest Crush Award in October 2011. He has two kids, a daughter called Ruby and a son called Sonny, from a previous relationship. Richard broke hearts across Britain when was reported to be dating broadcaster Emily Dean(right) in 2015, but it's thought that he's currently single.