ROBERTO MANCINI would relish the opportunity to manage Chelsea but, as yet, there has been no approach from the London club. The Italian has been relieved of his managerial duties at Internazionale - his agent confirmed the parting yesterday - and he is now embroiled in a wrangle over compensation. With Jose Mourinho poised to replace him at San Siro, Mancini wants a satisfactory settlement on the remaining five years of his contract, which is worth £6 million a year.

"There are no [escape] clauses," said Mancini's agent, Giorgio De Giorgis, who said his client was "very disappointed" at the "unexpected" turn of events. "When you have a contract it has to be respected until it terminates. When a president turns first to Mancini and then to Mourinho he knows what the costs are."

Massimo Moratti, the Inter president, met Mancini on Tuesday afternoon and told the man who has just guided the club to their third successive Scudetto that his services were no longer required.

"As of now, there is no contact with Chelsea," added De Giorgis. "Mancini is not a person or a coach who likes to propose himself to a club, he waits for a club to look for him so we are in that position right now. We are not proposing Mancini to any club. Chelsea are one of the top five clubs in the world so it is more likely, if there will be any talk, there is more of a chance of it to happen now than before."

Chelsea are assessing their options after sacking Avram Grant. Luiz Felipe Scolari, Mark Hughes and Frank Rijkaard, together with Mancini, are among the coaches under consideration while Guus Hiddink has distanced himself from the running.

Their interest is believed to have cooled on former Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard while former Chelsea player Didier Deschamps insists he is on the shortlist but Chelsea, as expected, have made no official comment.

The interest in Hughes, a former Chelsea player, was greeted with approval by fans on Chelsea TV but Mancini's CV ticks all the major boxes for the English club.

Meanwhile, Grant has claimed Chelsea would have won the Premier League title if he had been at the helm from the beginning of the season.

The Israeli, who took over from Mourinho last September with the club fifth in the table at the time, said: "I tell you this: If Chelsea had played at the beginning of the season like they did at the end then they would definitely have been champions of England ahead of Man United."

Steve McClaren is close to ending his six-month absence from the game at FC Twente despite bizarre claims that he visited the Dutch club's stadium this week only for a guided tour.

The 47-year-old was photographed leaving the Grolsch Veste on Tuesday, where he met officials from the surprise Champions League qualifiers. Despite the talks and McClaren's interest in adding more European experience to his CV, FC Twente's president, Joop Munsterman, made a strenuous effort yesterday to deny the appointment was imminent.

"McClaren called FC Twente to get a guided tour around the stadium," he said. "We did not speak about a contract. There are more candidates."