Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is close to being named the new coach of Inter Milan according to Italian press reports, following the release of pictures of the Portuguese meeting with Nerazzurri president Massimo Moratti in Paris. The lunch meeting allegedly took place on Friday with other Inter officials also reported to have attended.

La Gazetto dello Sport claimed on Saturday that the meeting was held to discuss transfer targets, more specifically a 30-million-euro bid for Barcelona's Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o. Italian news agency Ansa claimed Mourinho will sign officially at the beginning of next week, before heading out to Japan to take charge of a Rest of the World team for Hidetoshi Nakata's testimonial on Wednesday.

Mourinho has been out of the game since leaving Chelsea by mutual consent early last season. He had won two Premier League titles with the London club, the FA Cup and two League Cups in just over three seasons. Before that he coached Porto to the UEFA Champions League crown, UEFA Cup, two league titles and a Portuguese Cup in an incredible two-year period from 2002.

Mourinho is expected to replace Roberto Mancini who was sacked as coach of the Serie A champions on Thursday, despite having just led them to a third successive league title. The 43-year-old former Italian international forward is, coincidentally, favoured to take over at Chelsea.

Moratti today thanked Mancini for the success he brought the club, which included two cup wins. "There has been thanks from me for the work he did. I told Mancini personally and I'm repeating it now," he said.

However, he then repeated criticism of Mancini for announcing his departure immediately following Inter's Champions League elimination at the hands of Liverpool in March, before retracting it a day later. "That statement caused many problems at Inter and destabilised the team," added Moratti.