Roberto Mancini says he could not have asked for a much tougher start to life back as Inter Milan coach, although AC Milan's general manager Adriano Galliani has bemoaned the timing of his appointment ahead of the Milan derby.
Mancini returned to the Nerazzurri at the weekend after Walter Mazzarri was dismissed with the club failing to live up to their preseason expectations.
The Italian's first game back in charge is the Derby della Madonnina on Sunday, while that is followed by a trip to second-placed Roma.
Inter, who sit ninth in Serie A, then host high-flying Udinese -- coached by former Inter boss Andrea Stramaccioni -- in what promises to be a baptism of fire for Mancini, who won three Serie A titles and two Coppa Italias during his previous stint at the club.
"No game would have been an easy start in Serie A, but I've got to say that having Milan and then Roma is fascinating and difficult," Mancini told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "But it's purely a coincidence.
"Football in Italy is still strong, even if it's in a historically difficult moment. Maybe things are not going so well, but you've got to build on the foundations of enthusiasm, and then with hard work all the rest follows. Either way, we've got to learn fast."
Some of that enthusiasm has been brought back to Inter by Mancini's return.
"We expected it, perhaps not to this extent, but we're delighted to see all the affection towards him," Inter general manager Marco Fassone said. "Maybe we've just been lacking this enthusiasm and these smiles recently and one of the reasons for appointing him was this."
Mancini's return is not all good news, though, with Galliani aware of the effect appointing a new coach can have on a team.
"It's because of this that we thought about firing [Filippo] Inzaghi this week," Galliani joked to reporters in Milan. "The change of coach at Inter certainly complicates matters for us a lot because, statistically speaking, when a new coach arrives, it gives everybody a boost which lasts three or four games and then everything returns to normality.
"Of course that's without even mentioning the value Roberto Mancini has."