When Internazionale president Massimo Moratti said on Monday Morning, "I think that Claudio Ranieri will remain until the end of the season," most took that as he won't see Tuesday morning as manager.
Or, the entire evening. Ranieri was sacked yesterday after only one win in 10 Serie A matches. The ex-Chelsea manager took charge at San Siro in September, replacing Gian Piero Gasperini, who was dismissed after only five games in charge, but Inter were eliminated from the Champions League by Marseille and are 22 points behind AC Milan in the race for the Scudetto.
Moratti has worked with 17 cmanagersaches in 17 years, and Inter have had four coaches since Jose Mourinho liked winning a European Cup final in Madrid so much he decided to stay there. Youth team coach Andrea Stramaccioni will now charge of the Nerazzurri.
Rafael Benítez, like Gasperini, tried to teach old dogs new tricks and was at loggerheads with the club’s hierarchy, while sandwiched in between was Leonardo, hired after a woeful stint at city rivals AC.
Gasperini meanwhile became the first ever manager in Italy to lose his club job without a single victory.
Since his ascension to the throne of owner in 1995, Moratti has hired 14 full-time coaches at the club (Luciano Castellini was interim coach twice, Corrado Verdelli was caretaker in 2003) and fired all of them except Mourinho.
And here is the roll call...