• Roma wanted Luis Enrique to stay but he 'felt need to stop'
• Former striker Vincenzo Montella favourite to take charge
Luis Enrique has quit as the manager of Roma, putting an end to a troubled reign in charge of the Serie A side.
"At a certain point it wore him out and he felt the need to stop," Franco Baldini, the club's general director, said. "He won't be training anywhere next season. We invited him to take all the time he needed to decide, hoping right until the end that he would stay."
The former Roma striker Vincenzo Montella, who coached the club in the second half of last season after Claudio Ranieri's departure, appears to be in pole position to succeed Luis Enrique.
Italian media had reported the manager's departure on Thursday, after a video surfaced of him apparently saying goodbye to the players at the club's training ground, but neither Roma nor the coach himself confirmed the news.
The season has been a tough one for the club, whose new owners, led by the American Thomas DiBenedetto, put the Spaniard in charge of a long-term project that they hoped would make Roma as successful as the big three of Milan, Juventus and Internazionale.
However, the club have suffered 14 defeats, are seventh in the league with one game to play and may not qualify for Europe next season. The club's hierarchy remained supportive of Luis Enrique but it was clear that pressure from fans and media irritated the Spaniard. Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
