Italian Inter Milan club's new coach Alberto Zaccheroni on Monday promised to bring the club's long- suffering fans the rewards they've been led to expect by years of lavish spending.

"Inter will be great," the 50-year-old former AC Milan and Lazio manager told one of Italy's two main sports dailies, Corriere dello Sport.

"I and (Inter chairman) Massimo Moratti have the same ambitions, " Zaccheroni continued in the Corriere dello Sport piece.

The other sports daily, Gazzetta dello Sport, pointed out that it was Zaccheroni who sank Inter's closest attempt at the Italian league championship when Lazio beat Inter 4-2 in May 2002.

Gazzetta quoted Moratti as saying, as chairmen do on these occasions, that "Zaccheroni's arrival is a wake-up call" to the team.

"We can become protagonists again," he was quoted as saying.

It also claimed he had been a life-long Inter fan.

Zaccheroni, nicknamed Zac, is Moratti's tenth coach in an almost eight-year reign at Inter which has seen the oil magnate dig deep for stars like Ronaldo, goalkeeper Francesco Toldo, Italy skipper Fabio Cannavaro and Italy spearhead Christian Vieri but only reap the reward of a UEFA Cup win in 1998.

Cuper had been under mounting pressure lately as his side failed to live up to the unflagging expectations of fans and board.

Moratti reportedly took the decision after watching his star- laden team go two goals down in the first half of a Serie A match on Saturday night against lowly Brescia. A 3-1 defeat by AC Milan earlier this month was seen by many as putting Cuper on the brink.

Cuper was in his third season at Inter. After six games, the team is seventh, seven points behind leaders Juventus.

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