Inter Milan manager Roberto Mancini has been given a vote of confidence by club owner Erick Thohir - just three weeks before the Italian giants face Celtic in the Europa League.
The former Manchester City boss is little over two months into his second spell in charge of the Nerazzurri after replacing Walter Mazzarri in November, but has claimed just three wins in 12 games in all competitions. With Inter toiling in 10th place in Serie A, Mancini felt the brunt of the fans' dissatisfaction following a dismal 1-0 defeat at home to Torino on Sunday afternoon.
However, Thohir is adamant Mancini is not under pressure ahead of the crunch European clash against the Hoops next month. He said: "We signed him [Mancini] for three-and-a-half years, and longer if he wants. That remains the case. We want the team to have stability, because as I've said before, building a team takes years.
"This is why we've focused on Mancini, he shares our vision, and has the same desire to improve the team."
With Inter languishing in mid-table mediocrity, the Europa League arguably represents their best chance to secure continental qualification next term, with the competition's winner qualifying for next season's Champions League. And Thohir hopes his side will sweep aside Celtic over two legs - to be played on the 19 and 26 of February - before lifting the trophy in Warsaw.
He added: "I can see that the Europa League is a tough competition - we want to compete as long as we can and now we will face Celtic in the round of 32. We want to win, progress further and become champions"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article