Italy: Mancini denies Saudi rumours after Italy exit, Spalletti hits roadblock

Milan:: Roberto Mancini insists that a potential move to the Saudi Arabia national team is not the reason for his sudden decision to quit Italy which has sparked a contract row over his tipped successor Luciano Spalletti.

Mancini resigned on Sunday with less than a month until European champions Italy recommence their bid to qualify for Euro 2024 and has reportedly been offered 25 million euros to coach the Gulf nation.

But in interviews with four Italian newspapers all published on Tuesday he says he has made no decision about his future.

“I´m a football manager and when I receive an offer that I like I will accept it. But that´s not why I quit the national team,” said Mancini to Corriere Dello Sport. “Italy was always the number one for me. After many years I´ve received plenty of offers which I will look at in the coming weeks but right now there is nothing solid.

“I´m a manager and I can´t just stop… but Saudi Arabia has nothing to do with it.” Mancini had a mixed time in his five years as Italy coach, victory at Euro 2020 seeming to revitalise a troubled football nation.

But the Azzurri failed to qualify for last year´s World Cup following a disastrous play-off defeat to North Macedonia and the country no longer produces the sort of world class talent which helped make Serie A the world´s top football league.

Mancini´s resignation came as a major shock, as earlier this month the 58-year-old had been handed responsibility for the country´s Under-21 and Under-20 teams.

He was heavily criticised for his decision especially following reports that he was set to accept a mega-money move to Saudi.

But Mancini said that he stepped down as Azzurri coach because of disagreements with the head of Italy´s football federation Gabriele Gravina, in particular over his decision to make changes to his coaching staff.

“Have you ever seen the head of the federation change a manager´s coaching staff? I´m the one who should be making changes,” he said to La Repubblica.

“The truth is that we´ve been on a different wavelength for a while. But why make changes to my staff? At that point he should have sacked me… if he wanted to keep me, he could have. but he didn´t want to.”

Italy face North Macedonia and Ukraine in the Euro 2024 qualifiers next month and the federation is scrambling for a coach who can ensure they don´t miss out on yet another major tournament.

Spalletti and former Italy coach Antonio Conte are the favourites for the post but a contract wrangle might yet stop the former from taking the big chair.

Despite quitting Napoli after winning their first league title since 1990 Spalletti is still under contract until June next year.

A clause in that deal says he is free to coach another team with payment of three million euros in compensation, a sum which decreases by 250,000 euros each month until the end of his contract.

Italian media reported that Gravina would try to convince Napoli to let Spalletti off the payment as he isn´t moving to a rival club but on Tuesday owner Aurelio De Laurentiis said that was not an option.

De Laurentiis said in a statement that he allowed Spalletti to leave because the coach said he was tired and needed time away from the game, and inserted the penalty clause as a guarantee over his season-long sabbatical.

“If they rightly choose Spalletti… offering him a three million-euro salary for three seasons, we can´t be burdened with paying one million euros a year on behalf of the coach to free him from his contractual obligation (not just to Napoli but to its millions of fans),” said the movie mogul.

“Three million euros is not a lot of money for Napoli and it´s even less for Aurelio De Laurentiis. This isn´t a question of ´the almighty dollar´ but of principle.”