Lippi still waiting for right offer to return

Marcello Lippi, who coached Italy to their 2006 World Cup triumph, said this week he was waiting for a chance to get back into club management.

Lippi, who won five Serie A titles and the 1996 Champions League during two spells with Juventus, stepped down from the national job after their victory in Germany.

Linked since with several European clubs, the wily Lippi said he missed being in the dugout, telling Reuters:

"I still see my future on a football pitch for a few years yet - as soon as there's a solution which I like, one that interests me."

Asked whether he was tempted by a move into English football, an option he discussed in a 1997 autobiography, Lippi said: "It could be an interesting experience; but I can't very well go knocking on the doors of the clubs.

"If a club were to come to me, we could talk."

The 59-year-old, who also had a spell at Inter, had no doubts about the extent of domestic Premier League talent.

"There are a lot of very good English players, people like (Frank) Lampard, (Steven) Gerrard and (Wayne) Rooney," he said.

The trio are part of an England squad coached by Lippi's compatriot and former Serie A rival Fabio Capello, who was appointed after England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 under Steve McClaren.

Capello's job, as a national coach, is not one that would have appealed to Lippi.

"A coach who has just won the World Cup with his national side can't go and work with another country's team," he said.

The Tuscan said he would have no problems following his world champions from an armchair during Euro 2008.

"I've been watching Italy on television for two years now and I'll keep on doing it," he said.

"And I certainly hope they (win it)."

Italy will clearly be the team to beat at the tournament in Switzerland and Austria in June, but they will also have to cope with the weight of expectation from back home.

Lippi, who was in London this week to receive an award from the Dolce Vita Italian Cultural Fair, shrugged off any notion that Italy would be handicapped by the mantle of world champions.

"Do you think it would have been better not to have won the World Cup?" he grinned.