Former Inter Milan manager Roberto Mancini has hit back at “envious” Ruud Gullit after the Dutchman suggested the Italian had failed to prepare the club’s players for the start of the season.
Mancini was replaced by Frank De Boer, Gullit’s former teammate in the Dutch national side, when he was sacked by the Italian club ahead of the Serie A season.
Inter invested heavily in players during the summer but have made a terrible start under De Boer, losing away to Chievo in their league opener and then being held to a 1-1 draw at home by Palermo.
Gullit suggested Mancini was to blame, the former AC Milan and Chelsea player claiming the respected Italian had failed to physically prepare Inter for the new season because “he was already thinking of leaving”.
Mancini, it appears, has taken the accusation badly.
“Gullit was fortunate to have had a great playing career. Full stop,” Mancini said in comments to Radio Incontro Olympia.
“In football, when you’ve been a great player and then you don’t succeed in anything else it’s sometimes difficult to accept.
“These kinds of people like to speak about other players and coaches. If he’s a friend of (Frank) De Boer, that’s fine. But that doesn’t give him the right to make these comments.
“But Gullit’s not the only one, there are lots like him. Envy is a terrible thing.”
Mancini, 51, won seven trophies including three consecutive league titles with Inter in a previous spell in charge at the club.
He also ended Manchester City’s 44-year wait to be crowned league champions when he steered them to the Premier League title in 2012.
Although Gullit led Chelsea to their first major trophy in 26 years with the FA Cup in 1997, he was controversially sacked by the club soon after.
He then had unsuccessful spells at Newcastle United, Feyenoord, LA Galaxy and Terek Grozny. In the Russian Premier League, Gullit won three games out of 13 and after he was sacked the club, criticised his “party lifestyle”.
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