Notts County executive chairman Peter Trembling has revealed that the club met with Roberto Mancini to talk about becoming manager at Meadow Lane.

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Former Internazionale coach Mancini was the most high-profile name linked with succeeding Ian McParland at Meadow Lane after the Scot was sacked just over a fortnight ago. Director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson was charged with finding the new boss and the Swede opted to turn to his countryman and former assistant at Manchester City and the Mexico national team Hans Backe, who signed a three-year contract on Tuesday.

Trembling and Eriksson discussed the job with Mancini but decided against taking matters further with the Italian due to the media interest his appointment would generate.

"Roberto Mancini was up there in our thinking, Sven and I met with him and he is a fantastic man," said Trembling in a lengthy interview in the Nottingham Evening Post.

"He is without doubt a fantastic coach, he could come into the club and do something from a PR point of view and he would put bums on seats. But I did not want a particularly high-profile appointment because we have had a media circus around the club for the last three months.

"It was important that we got somebody who would get on with the job and concentrate on the football side of things. I am sure Roberto would have wanted to do that, but I don't think the media circus would have allowed it."