Roberto Mancini missed out on all three openings in the recent Serie A carousel and ended his hiatus by heading back to the Middle East, but not to Saudi Arabia. He’s been hired by the Qatari side Al Sadd.
According to La Repubblica, the veteran had his sights set on Juventus, which had two coaching changes in recent months. The ownership picked the cheaper Igor Tudor over him when Thiago Motta got the ax. Then, the Cristiano Giuntoli-less brass was in lockstep in preferring Luciano Spalletti recently.
Mancini has also been linked to Fiorentina and Atalanta, but things didn’t move past initial approaches. He already helmed the Viola early in his career. The breakup was messy amid their burgeoning financial problems at the time. He attended the recent Champions League game between La Dea and Olympique Marseille, but the Bergamaschi had a clear name in mind when they sacked Ivan Juric.
The gaffer tried to engineer his return to the Italy bench, expressing contrition for how his abrupt departure came to be. However, FIGC Gabriele Gravina hadn’t forgotten and went with Gennaro Gattuso instead.
Nottingham Forest were the only European team that made a serious proposal, but he decided to wait for more glamorous destinations. He’ll have relatively modest wages at Al Sadd, €4.5M till the end of the season, plus a two-year option. The Al Thani family controls the team.
Our Take on Mancini
The result of his final months with the Azzurri and his unsavory exit are likely a bigger turn-off for clubs than the fact that he hasn’t coached in a major league in years, but the way Stefano Pioli fared in his return from Saudi Arabia surely didn’t work in his favor.
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