Roberto Mancini has spoken of his desire to return to management in the Premier League, six months after losing his job as coach of Inter Milan.
Mancini was spotted in the crowd at the London Stadium this week, fuelling rumours he is being lined up to replace Slaven Bilic as West Ham United manager.
In an interview with Italy's La Stampa, the 52-year-old confirmed he is now ready for a return to management -- preferably in England.
"As soon as I left Inter, I had an offer from China, but I said thanks but no thanks," he said.
"Now I am more attracted by other leagues, especially the Premier League."
Mancini suggested that he would not available now if Inter had just shown more patience with him, and he said they had been too hasty in showing him the door just a few weeks before the start of the current season.
"At Inter, the situation had become absurd and too difficult to manage," he said. "There were too many people talking. The Chinese [owners] were always perfect with me and I was sorry to leave. I am convinced that we would have had a great season.
"The lads were improving and my Inter was getting ready to win things again. I had hoped so much that things would sort themselves out, but inside me I had realised that something had broken. It wasn't that the team had been constructed badly -- the players were giving it everything -- it was just unimaginable that we could have been ready for Aug. 20."
That became more than evident as Inter stuttered into the season under Mancini's successor Frank de Boer, who was given just three months in the Nerazzurri hotseat.
"De Boer said that the team was not running, but it wasn't exactly like that," Mancini said. "But I will forgive him because I know that it was not easy to work at Inter in those conditions. I'm sorry that it didn't end well for him because he needed more time."
De Boer was replaced by Stefano Pioli, who has led the Nerazzurri to seven straight league wins which have catapulted them back into contention for a top three finish this season.