Mancini eyes Italy job as Zenit confirm exit

SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia: Roberto Mancini quit as Zenit Saint Petersburg coach on Sunday, saying he now felt free to open talks with Italy over the vacant national team job.

Mancini was said to have reached agreement to become the next Italy coach last Tuesday, Gazzetta dello Sport reported, but he denied that on Sunday.Earlier in the day the club confirmed Mancini would be leaving the Russian Premier League club.

“Zenit and Roberto Mancini have reached an agreement over early termination of his contract,” Zenit said in a statement.“The contract was cancelled by mutual consent of the parties without any indemnity payments.”

Mancini however insisted that no arrangements concerning a possibility of his work with the Italian national side had been achieved yet.“It would have been totally wrong to hold talks before my contract (with Zenit) had been cancelled,” he told the news conference Sunday after his last match as Zenit manager.

“I cannot confirm yet that I will be Italy’s next national head coach. But I will be able to hold talks about it with the Italian (football) federation pretty soon.”Mancini added that he decided to part his ways with Zenit around three months ago.