Claudio Ranieri talks to the clock in Cagliari-Como-Corriere.it

In the eighties and nineties there was Michael Knight who fought the forces of evil with the invaluable help of Kitt, the indestructible talking supercar controlled by an artificial intelligence. In the Supercar TV series, Kitt comes to the rescue of its owner (played by Baywatch’s David Hasseloff) who talks to the car through a clock. Four decades later, cars are capable of driving autonomously and smartwatches are on the verge of retiring their hands.

But it still makes you smile to see the Cagliari coach Claudio Ranieri — that when Supercar was broadcast on Italia 1 he trained the Sardinians — conversing amiably with his smartwatch during the match against Serie B Como, on the day of his new debut on the rossoblù bench that he had frequented at the beginning of his career, between 1988 and 1991. In a couple of circumstances the cameras filmed him while he was recording talking to the clock. Probably, he wasn’t asking for Kitt’s intervention to win the game: he was just recording on his smartwatch (and therefore on his smartphone) some notes to listen to later, as he himself later explained: «I record everything to be able to remember the important moments to look back on after the match. There are those who write, I record so I can continue to follow the meeting with my eyes ».

At 71, Ranieri is evidently always in step with the times and masters the technology, increasingly present in football and in today’s life. International experiences, from Spain to England, via France and Greece, have helped the Roman coach to keep up to date. Now, returned to Cagliari on 1 January after Liverani was sacked, his task is to try to bring the Sardinian team back to Serie A, one year after the bitter relegation of last spring that still burns. The debut was positive, with the 2-0 win against Como which allowed the rossoblù to climb to sixth place in the standings, bring Pisa closer, beaten at home by Cittadella, and overtake Parma, overwhelmed 4-0 by Bari.