Jose Mourinho has set his sights on tearing the heart out of Chelsea's squad after he was officially named the new manager of Inter Milan.

Inter today announced that the 45-year-old had signed a three-year contract to replace Roberto Mancini in charge of the Italian champions.

And one of Mourinho's first tasks will be to try to persuade Frank Lampard to quit Stamford Bridge and join him at the San Siro, while Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba are also on his list of targets.

Mourinho has told Inter officials that his excellent rapport with all four players can tempt them to join him regardless of any resistance from Chelsea.

Lampard will meet Stamford Bridge officials this week to discuss extending his contract, which has just one year left to run. However, if the talks fail then the Blues would be forced to cut their losses and sell for as little as £8million.

The 29-year-old has always expressed a desire to stay with the west London club - but has also admitted he would love to play abroad, and the presence of Mourinho could prove decisive.

The Portuguese is equally keen to land Carvalho, who he coached at Porto, and will instruct Inter to make a £7m offer but the signings of Essien and Drogba are likely to prove far harder to secure.

Even though the 30-year-old Drogba is virtually certain to leave Chelsea, he would still cost around £21m and he is also wanted by Inter's city rivals, AC Milan.

Mourinho would also have to spend big to get Essien, as Chelsea splashed out £24m to sign the Ghanaian midfielder from Lyon in 2005 and will refuse to accept a loss on the 25-year-old.

Besides the Chelsea quartet, Mourinho is also keen on Barcelona pair Deco and Samuel Eto'o.

Brazilian-born playmaker Deco was a key member of the Porto side Mourinho guided to the Champions League title four years ago, while the Portuguese tried to sign striker Eto'o during his three-year reign at the Bridge.

Mourinho will be presented to the media as Inter boss tomorrow and a statement on the club's website read: "Mourinho has signed a three-year contract with Inter, and will work with his staff [fitness coach] Rui Farias, [goalkeeping coach] Silvino and [chief scout] Andre Villas Boas.

"The assistant coach will be former Inter player Giuseppe Baresi, who is currently in charge of the youth system.

"While thanking Roberto Mancini and his staff for their success in the last four years in charge of the team, all of Inter would like to welcome Jose Mourinho and his staff, and to wish them good luck."

Mancini is among the candidates to take over at Chelsea but another man thought to be vying for the job, Mark Hughes, now appears set to take over at Manchester City following today's sacking of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Within hours of Eriksson's long-anticipated departure being confirmed, Blackburn said they had "reluctantly" let their manager speak to City officials.

"Mark has made it clear to the board he would like the opportunity to talk to them," added Rovers.

The Welshman could be unveiled as City's third manager in 14 months before the end of the week and his appointment could ease tensions at City where players - including unsettled skipper Richard Dunne - are angry that Eriksson has been sacked after just one season. He has been living on borrowed time at Eastlands since Shinawatra publicly declared two months ago he was considering changing manager.

The Swede, who received a multi-million pound compensation package when he left the England job in 2006, should get another big pay-out as he had three years left on his deal.

"I have enjoyed my time at City very much," said Eriksson today. "I would like to thank the fans, players and staff for their amazing support."

A move to City for Hughes would narrow down Chelsea's options for a successor to Grant.

Owner Roman Abramovich is set to meet with directors Eugene Tenenbaum, Peter Kenyon and Bruce Buck in the next few days to discuss their search.

The club are expected to wait for Euro 2008 to end before finalising their choice, with two of the likely candidates - Guus Hiddink and Luiz Filipe Scolari - coaching Russia and Portugal respectively in the tournament.