Inter coach Roberto Mancini's announcement he was quitting the club at the end of the season has shocked Italian soccer - and even taken his chairman aback.
''Mancini's decision surprised me,'' said Chairman Massimo Moratti, who said he hoped to change Mancini's mind.
Moratti indicated that something might have been building up inside the coach since Inter's 2-0 loss against Liverpool in the Champions League last-16 first leg ten days ago.
This then erupted after Liverpool dumped the Italian champions out of Europe with a 1-0 win in the second leg at the San Siro Tuesday night, Moratti guessed.
''It was probably something he had in mind as early as the first leg,'' Moratti said.
The chairman said he had only been able to have a ''very quick, very human'' exchange with the coach after his statement.
''But I've already told him, there's a contract and there's confidence in him''.
''We'll have to see if he has confidence in himself''.
Moratti, who said he had no alternatives to Moratti in mind, said he hoped to ''patch things up'' in a meeting Thursday morning.
Mancini's agent Giorgio De Giorgis also said he hoped his client would stay at Inter, with which he has a four-year contract.
He indicated that the Liverpool defeat, putting an end to long-held ambitions to win the Champions League, had prompted a ''gut'' reaction.
De Giorgis quashed rumours that the 43-year-old former Sampdoria and Lazio great had already agreed terms with a big foreign club.
''Nonsense, just nonsense,'' he said.
''He doesn't have any other contract and I hope he stays at Inter''.
Earlier, Italy legend Marco Tardelli was among those who thought Mancini wouldn't have made such a statement unless he already had something else in his pocket.
''That was almost certainly a decision he'd already taken because you're not just going to find a big foreign club from now until the end of the season,'' said assistant Ireland coach Tardelli, a Juventus great who played for Inter from 1985 to 1987.
After his bombshell Mancini was immediately linked to a number of foreign clubs.
He was most widely tipped to replace Avram Grant at Chelsea.
The British press on Wednesday saw Mancini's arrival in London as a foregone conclusion.
But the Spanish press thought he would be heading for Barcelona.
As for Mancini's possible replacement at Inter, Tardelli reckoned Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez was a better bet than ex-Chelsea boss Jose' Mourinho, who is leading the running.
Mourinho told British magazine GQ that he would like to manage an Italian club and ''it would take me just two months to learn Italian''.
But he said he saw himself returning to English soccer first.
Mancini, who has won two Italian Cups and two straight league titles in his four years at Inter, gave no hint of where he would be working next year.
But in the past he has said he was not fond of the ''polemical'' nature of Italian soccer.
A year ago, hinting that he might ''some day'' leave Serie A, he said: ''Certain polemics, a certain way of talking about soccer, are not to my liking. In fact I can't stand them''.
''The job is different abroad. They live soccer in a way I like''.
Mancini's last season as a player was at Leicester City in England in 2001. His son Filippo is currently on loan from Inter to Manchester City.
Several ex-coaches and pundits criticised the manner and timing of Mancini's statement, with 11 games to go in a championship Inter is leading by six points from Roma.
Former Inter coach Gigi Simoni said ''I saw him two days ago at Inter's centenary celebrations and had no inkling he was thinking of doing something like that''.
''Even if he'd already made up his mind he should have kept it to himself for a while, spoken to the club, not traumatized the players''.
Sports psychologist Mauro Gatti said ''the players most at risk are the youngest and most sensitive ones''.
The doyen of Serie A managers, Carlo Mazzone, said ''this is an extraordinary gesture; I haven't seen anything like it in 40 years''.
''Something must have happened, I don't know what, maybe we'll find out over the next few days''.
''I've seen some friction with some players,'' Mazzone said.
''Now the ball's in their court''.
