I have to say I was less than impressed to hear reports on Sky Sports yesterday of Roberto Mancini being the new ‘favourite’ to take over as Chelsea manager. I’ve touched on Mancini as a candidate recently and think my dislike for him is probably evident. So the fact that Sky seemed pretty certain there was some truth to these latest rumours had me a bit worried, until I looked at what exactly backs this particular ‘exclusive’ up.

Well, Mancini was given the push from Inter – but, thankfully there appears to be no more substance than that. His agent has admitted that at the present time there has been no contact with Chelsea and suggests that Mancini would never stoop so low as to propose himself to a club. But then he more or less does exactly that by going on to say “he waits for a club to look after him, so we are in that position right now.” Good job he hasn’t resorted to whoring himself in the press already then.

But whilst Mancini has made no secret of the fact he wants to manage a club capable of challenging for the Champions League, is he capable of doing that himself? I mean, he is Inter’s most successful manager in the last 40 years, having won three out of four Serie A titles, but then Mourinho won a couple of titles with us and still could never get past Liverpool when it came to Europe.

In his first year at Inter, Mancini finished third in Serie A and won an Italian cup and this was followed by the scudetto hattrick, but whilst that looks good on paper, the reality takes the shine off it a bit. The 2006 title had to be handed down by the slightly more crooked Juventus and last year they didn’t exactly have much in the way of opposition, with AC Milan 8 points behind from the start of the campaign and Juve dumped into Serie B.

More worryingly though, from a Chelsea perspective is the Mancini Inter have seen this season. With rumours of a bust-up with his players doing the rounds following the defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League, Mancini did little to dispel them by announcing his decision to quit at the end of the season. Although in true child-after-tantrum fashion, changed his mind a few days later. And the rumblings of dressing room unrest were only given more credibility when an 11-point gap over AS Roma at one stage, dwindled down to nothing, with Inter taking the title on the final day.

With ‘player power’ being thought of as the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Mancini getting his P45 is concerned, you’d have to think Roman would be a bit iffy about this particular candidate. Because with Chelsea needing something a bit more stable than the last 8-month manager’s stint, I’d have to say Mancini’s temperament might not even hold out for the duration of an interview.

Filed under: Rants