Thohir puts faith in Mancini for Inter´s ´five-year plan´

Inter president Erick Thohir is confident that Roberto Mancini will remain in charge beyond the end of this season.

The former Manchester City boss guided Inter to the top of Serie A during the first half of 2015-16, but a decline in form over January and February saw them slip outside of the Champions League places.

With Inter having spent large sums on the likes of Geoffrey Kondogbia and Ivan Perisic, speculation has emerged in Italy that Mancini may not survive a failure to secure a top-three league finish.

But Thohir insists he has faith in the 51-year-old as part of Inter’s wider “five-year plan” to re-establish their supremacy in Italy’s top flight.

“His contract lasts until 2017, I don’t think we’ll talk about it now,” he told the media at a sponsor event. “I think he will stay.

“The management supports him in every way, and the reason for getting him was to get Inter into the Champions League – he and the players must prove that they are at that level.

“We have a five-year plan. We’re aiming for the Champions League, but if we don’t make it then we’ll focus on the Europa League.

“The numbers we’ve spent in the market tell us we’re fine for the Europa League, while if we get to the Champions League then there is room for further additions.

“There’s a strategy. We’ve got a lot of new players and we’ve supported the project every step of the way. On the other hand, we need the results, and we want to achieve that with Mancini.

“On January 6 we were in the lead, so we’d not only be in the top three, but possibly Scudetto winners. It’s very important to be aligned with our objectives.

“We’ve had good results and we want to achieve our objectives, but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t succeed, because we’ll keep going until our goal is achieved.”