Mazzarri appointed Inter coach

Inter have parted company with head coach Andrea Stramaccioni after his first full season as a Serie A manager ended in huge disappointment, with Walter Mazzarri confirmed as his replacement.

The 37-year-old Stramaccioni has paid the price after only guiding Inter to a ninth-placed finish – a worst performance since 1994 –while overseeing 16 league defeats in the 2012/13 campaign.

Mazzarri, who announced his decision to leave runners-up Napoli last weekend, has been named as Inter’s new coach on a two-year deal.

A statement published on inter.it read: “Inter would like to communicate that they have reached an agreement with Walter Mazzarri - the new coach of Inter.

“Inter thank Andrea Stramaccioni for his great efforts and the professionalism he showed in a particularly difficult year.

“The agreement with Walter Mazzarri will last for two years.”

Stramaccioni, whose contract ran until 2015, was spared the news until yesterday having spent the week absent from Inter’s Angelo Moratti training complex due to a bout of flu.

The Roman was a surprise choice to replace Claudio Ranieri in March 2012, with president Massimo Moratti putting his faith in the man who had guided Inter’s youth team to glory in the inaugural NextGen tournament earlier that month.

A subsequent sixth-placed finish in Serie A – and a Milan derby victory that ultimately helped Juventus beat the Rossoneri to the title – saw Stramaccioni confirmed as head coach for the 2012-13 season.

A run of seven consecutive league wins through the autumn then culminated in a famous 3-1 victory at Juventus but Inter’s campaign soon took a turn for the worse.

The departure of influential attacking midfielders Wesley Sneijder and Philippe Coutinho in January preceded a serious injury crisis and a flurry of defeats that saw the Nerazzurri tumble out of the race for Europe.