Mourinho can't get out of Italy fast enough

It only took four days after winning the Champions League final with Inter Milan for Jose Mourinho to pick up his stuff and say: peace out suckers.

It's all going to be finalized on Monday with the Special One signing on with Real Madrid.

Pairing him with Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the World's top 3 players, should make for fascinating stuff.

Madrid sacked Manuel Pellegrini on Wednesday and outlined their intention to replace him with Mourinho once both they and the Portuguese had negotiated his release from Inter.

The two clubs had been struggling to reach a compromise as Inter were insisting they must be paid the full €16 million due to them under the terms of Mourinho's contract.

However, an agreement, reported to be worth €8 million, has been reached after a meeting between Real president Florentino Perez and his Inter counterpart Massimo Moratti in Milan.

A statement from the Italian club read: "The president Massimo Moratti and Florentino Perez met this afternoon.

"In light of the excellent and constructive relations of friendship that exist between the two clubs, an agreement was reached on the contractual clause that binds Jose Mourinho to FC Internazionale. The time and the manner by which the agreement will be honoured has been defined.

"Massimo Moratti thanks Florentino Perez for his willingness to join him in Milan and for his courtesy, which confirms, once again, the strong link between the two prestigious club.''

Real director general Jorge Valdano said earlier on Friday that the reason for Pellegrini's sacking was that the board believed the Chilean's record in Real's key games was not good enough.

"Pellegrini created a very good working environment, avoiding dressing room conflicts and he had an impeccable record in the league," Valdano said. "But in the most important games of the season he was not able to succeed and so we decided to dismiss him.''

Valdano was also adamant striker Gonzalo Higuain would not be leaving the Bernabeu despite speculation in England linking him with big-spending Manchester City.

Higuain was Madrid's leading scorer in the Primera Division with 27 goals in 32 appearances in the recently-completed season and his fellow Argentinian insists he is not for sale.

Valdano said: "Higuain is under contract for three more years. He has been a benchmark for others and is not available for transfer.''

And as Shimer said on Sunday when we saw the first reports of this, Italian football is not for Mourinho. Their boring, defensive style is not what he favors and putting him in Spain should allow him to continue to flourish playing an exciting, attacking brand of football.