MILAN: Frank De Boer is poised to take over as new coach of Internazionale in place of Roberto Mancini who left the club “by mutual consent” at the weekend.
New Inter owner Suning Holdings was always expected to pick a new coach and former Holland defender De Boer, who left his role as Ajax head coach in May, arrived in Milan also over the weekend.
In a video posted on the club’s website, he said: “Hello Inter fans, I’m very happy to be here and I hope to see you soon.”
Earlier he told local media at the airport: “I hope I can achieve a lot of success here.”
De Boer, 46, was linked with Premier League clubs Everton and Southampton before those vacancies were filled by Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel respectively.
Former Sampdoria and Leicester striker Mancini, who claimed the Scudetto three times during his first tenure as Inter boss, returned to the Serie A club following a successful spell with Manchester City and a brief stint with Turkish giants Galatasaray.
Poor finish
However, the Nerazzurri finished a distant eighth in 2014-15 and an improvement to fourth the next year was considered a disappointment as Inter had led the standings from Napoli and eventual champions Juventus heading into the winter break.
When Chinese company Suning Holdings bought a majority stake at San Siro in June, Mancini was promised a large transfer budget but only managed to secure one major signing, bringing in Italy midfielder Antonio Candreva from Lazio for €22m.
Ever Banega, formerly of Sevilla, has arrived as a free agent while left-back Cristian Ansaldi was a modest purchase from Genoa.
Inter have played poorly in pre-season, losing 4-1 to Bayern Munich and then 6-1 to Tottenham in friendly games, and growing mutual frustration between the board, Mancini and a group of rebellious players has precipitated this change of leadership.
A statement read: “FC Internazionale Milano confirms that it has parted company with head coach Roberto Mancini by mutual agreement.
“Inter would like to place on record its thanks to Roberto for the work carried out with the team since he joined in November 2014.
“Last season the club led Serie A until the Christmas break, ending the season in fourth place and qualifying for the Europa League.
“We thank Roberto for the work and commitment he has shown the club over the past 20 months.”
** Uli Hoeness is likely to be returned to the presidency of German champions Bayern Munich at the annual meeting after completing his prison sentence for tax evasion.#
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