That, and poking people in the eye. I think you and @arthurka are both right. He was funnier/had a more positive “aura” (if that’s the right word) in his prime but mostly because he was winning stuff. The less he wins or the more irrelevant he becomes, the more bitter he’s becoming as there are less and less “happier” says to gloss over the bitterness.
Jose Mourinho | Sacked by Roma
- Thread starter roonster09
- Start date
One day later and it seems the media are starting to notice/refer actively these issues: Mourinho’s self-serving opportunism poisoning the water, the specific Italian issue with tribalism and fans behaving like entitled mobs, UEFA not giving the best example themselves with political schemes lacking transparency.
Big media outlets avoiding to instigate the herds further is the signal something really serious could happen (and “the toy break for all”), at this point in time. Fortunately, this season has pretty much ended and hopefully all parties can calm down and refocus before the next one starts in mid July.
He's received a 4 game stadium ban from UEFA for his antics during the Europa League Final. Naturally, Roma will appeal the punishment.
I know it's nearly 8 years ago but it's still weird to think about how he won the Premier League at Chelsea in his second stint. For some reason I barely remember it happening and the idea of him lifting the PL trophy seems incongruous with the decline of the last 10 or so years, and the images of him with the trophy that year look like something made by AI.
I think it's probably because the achievement was massively overshadowed by the Eva Carneiro incident, and the results meltdown and sacking which followed.
As an aside it's crazy how different with the makeup of the league was back then. City were still good but their first 11 beyond Aguero, Kompany and Fernandinho was really uninspiring. Liverpool still had Rodgers and a bin bag of a squad. It was the last season before Pep or Klopp were on the scene.
The managers across the league were fairly uninspiring in general, a finished Wenger, a past in Van Gaal, a haunted and doomed Pelligrini, an endless list of mediocre to awful British managers (Sherwood, Pardew, Bruce, Pearson, Rodgers, Carver, Chris Ramsey, Hughes, Garry Monk, Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce). The only ones with a bit of something about them were Mourinho and an up and coming Pochettino.
Since then we've seen mid to lower table teams pivot to getting in top quality international managers and massively improving their squads, whereas the top teams (except er... us) are overflowing with talent in their squad as opposed to having 5 or 6 great players.
Went off on a bit of a tangent there but refreshing my memory on that season was a proper weird memory hole moment.
I think it's probably because the achievement was massively overshadowed by the Eva Carneiro incident, and the results meltdown and sacking which followed.
As an aside it's crazy how different with the makeup of the league was back then. City were still good but their first 11 beyond Aguero, Kompany and Fernandinho was really uninspiring. Liverpool still had Rodgers and a bin bag of a squad. It was the last season before Pep or Klopp were on the scene.
The managers across the league were fairly uninspiring in general, a finished Wenger, a past in Van Gaal, a haunted and doomed Pelligrini, an endless list of mediocre to awful British managers (Sherwood, Pardew, Bruce, Pearson, Rodgers, Carver, Chris Ramsey, Hughes, Garry Monk, Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce). The only ones with a bit of something about them were Mourinho and an up and coming Pochettino.
Since then we've seen mid to lower table teams pivot to getting in top quality international managers and massively improving their squads, whereas the top teams (except er... us) are overflowing with talent in their squad as opposed to having 5 or 6 great players.
Went off on a bit of a tangent there but refreshing my memory on that season was a proper weird memory hole moment.
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In his defense, even though both Roma and Sevilla played like crap on that final, his team saw a denied PK and I dont think VAR made the best call on Rui Patricio PK. Most managers would also not be so gracious loosing a final like this. But the anger was misdirected since the VAR made all those mistakes, not the ref.
And this was after a quite competent job at Real against the best Barcelona team of the last 20/30 years. It seems that his career success would endure a few more years, but oh boy were we wrong.
And for all the praise here, he still did a lesser performance on Serie A than his predecessor with a much better squad, but the Mourinho effect is still growing strong on Roma fans.
Once a manager loses a dressing room I think the downward spiral begins. That’s a big reason Pep cherry picks jobs in my opinion because he knows as soon as doubts creep in with players, you’re done as a coach.
Every player who speaks highly of Mourinho talks about him inspiring them the give that extra few percent that make all the difference, to always have that siege mentality. Once you start to question him, even if it’s just thinking maybe he’s not quite as good as he was, it all breaks down.
3rd Season Mourinho is the high backline Harry Maguire of coaches.
This is what he does. You back him or he’ll throw his toys out of the pram and sabotage things until he gets sacked and a big payout. Did it at Chelsea 15-16 and at us 18-19.
he's still hilarious
Mou is nothing if not consistent.
Kinda understandable, he has no striker going into the season …
Completely understandable. If they are relying on Belloti as striker this season then they may as well give up now.
They've known since the last day of last season that they needed a striker and still nothing.
I used to love watching Belloti play but he has fallen off a cliff in the last year or so and is barely a footballer anymore
They've known since the last day of last season that they needed a striker and still nothing.
I used to love watching Belloti play but he has fallen off a cliff in the last year or so and is barely a footballer anymore
You can bet it's Lukaku he's asked for!
Belotti is a good player, but needs quality service since he is mainly a poacher/target man. Despite Mourinho style of play is mainly based on quick transitions, it requires that the front players to be very mobile and tactically smart to make the quick transition as most dangerous as possible. Unfortunately for Belloti, he has not much mobility and although he can protect the ball very well, he does not bully defenders that well making him disappear during large part of the game. Also at Torino he was used to play with a mobile partner, he wasn't required to be so versatile as in Roma.
Here's the full interview, translated with a translator. I've never seen him this open.
Source https://www.corrieredellosport.it/n...inho_intervista_esclusiva_la_mia_seconda_vita
With two weeks to go before the start of the new season, Jose Mourinho is back talking. The Special One gave a long interview to the Roman newspaper covering various topics: from the Budapest final, to his relationship with Tiago Pinto to his decision to accept the Friedkin's offer. With an eye on the roster currently available. His words, "I signed for Roma because when I met the Friedkins I really liked the way they spoke. Those words touched me deep inside, that's what I needed. "We think you are the right person to help us make Roma a bigger club," they added. "They conveyed their enthusiasm, I liked the prospect of a different project, three years of contract, progressive growth, something I had not previously considered."
Explain further.
"For example, the many young people, whom I made my debut, young people who have grown with me in these two years. When you work in a club like Real Madrid, Manchester, Chelsea, if you launch one youngster per season you have already done the most. At this stage of my career I needed stability, I felt that something in me had changed. Before I wanted and had to arrive, do, move, I was living a constant state of restlessness. I was in one place, doing my job, winning and moving on, I wanted to go and win somewhere else."
You took a big risk, though. The stakes of Financial Falr Play, the zero market, the condemnation to adapt to emergency. This is Roma, too. today.
"Real, Inter, United, Chelsea twice, at those levels the profile is very, very clear. The investments, the history of the club, the goals all very high: you come to win and win immediately. When I signed with Roma I knew perfectly well what I was getting into."
I have a hard time believing you.
"You have to. Obviously for me coming back to Italy did not mean going into the unknown, this is a country I know well on a cultural, historical and sporting level. I knew that on a social level Roma was an absolutely fantastic club, but also that from the point of view of football history it had won very little, despite so many good coaches and so many first-rate players, and investments as well. When you know the Roma reality you wonder why so little was won. Is it possible that you cannot do something different to help the club, the new ownership? If you ask me now if I regret the choice, I answer no. Absolutely not."
Well, in these two years some moments of discouragement you have experienced.
"Frustration yes, moments of frustration."
In the second year, moreover, things got worse, in terms of available resources.
"The first year I knew the situation, I sensed the ownership's desire to grow, and I thought, okay, this is perfect for me. A profile like mine, someone who has won so much, usually does not easily accept a potentially minor project. I can only think of Ancelotti at Everton."
And before that at Napoli.
"When someone like us accepts this risk, people think 'he is finished,' then Carlo goes to Real Madrid and wins everything there was to win. This experience in Rome is stimulating, rich, of a richness on many levels. Today I have a relationship with my players that is not easy to establish at a top club."
There are those who think that you only accepted Roma because, after all your experiences, you found yourself with a restricted market
"That is not my concern."
What worries you then?
"My happiness. A few days ago I was commenting with my table in Trigoria on one of the first things the Pope said in Lisbon. "You must laugh, you must joke, you must think positively, you must cultivate the sense of humor. My table has all this."
That explains the hug to the imaginary striker.
"Also, sometimes I read that Mourinho is provoking the club, that Mourinho is a wizard of communication."
You're not going to tell me that's not true.
"You think again that I'm joking, but Nuno, who is here with us, he knows what's what, I put my feet crossed on the table twenty times a day."
Yes, but last summer you had the computer off in front of your feet and were stressing the impossibility of shopping.
"Afterwards, however, there was no afterthought. The photo with the imaginary striker was done for a laugh."
Laughing not to get pissed off....
"In recent weeks I have seen coaches in a tizzy, one threatening to leave because he is unhappy with the market, another leaving for the same reason. There is a third who jokes with the fans and says we are not making a market. No provocation, that was not the intention."
So all is well.
"It's not all right, but I have fun even in difficulties. I grumble for an hour and immediately afterwards I come back positive. I don't get depressed, I don't threaten, I don't say I was promised the seas and the mountains, and I don't see the seas or the mountains. One thing I cannot change is my nature, I am not a bullshitter. Relative to the imaginary striker, I can tell you that even if Mbappé arrived next week he would still be late."
You know what they say in Rome? Sleep tight, José.
"This is to say that after 28 days of work, 31 training sessions and 6 games, a total of 37 sessions, plus tactical analysis meetings and more, not having a striker is a problem. By the way, don't mess with Belotti, he stays and will have a much more productive season."
Did you want Pinto?
"Me, yes me. But..."
But?
"After the departure, in quotes, of Tammy, we are in a situation that no coach in the world would like. I find it impossible to say that I am happy. To claim, though, that I am at open war with society, with Pinto, that I am not happy, is very wrong. Pinto knows that we are late, even the propiety knows it, in the end what really suffers is those who work and those who against Salernitana will have to enter the field with the best possible team. Pissed off no, depressed no. Just kidding, as the Pope wants, especially in difficulties, he repeats that difficulties are part of life, without difficulties it is more difficult to experience great joys. Twenty years ago I would have messed up, twenty years ago I would have been pissed off." "From my first Chelsea" continues "I left because I was really at war with a sporting director. I didn't like him, I had no relationship, the market a disaster, it was 2008. Today it's 2023 and I'm someone else."
Let's talk about your relationship with Tiago Pinto. Clarify it once and for all.
"This is not a new thing for me. People may have a different perception, but I have always had an excellent relationship with the companies I have worked. I left by my own decision when I felt that the time had come. With the exception of Tottenham, exonerated two days before playing a final, a crazy thing."
The fact that you're an extraordinary communicator has always overshadowed the second place to the greatness of the technician. You are often blamed for the poor quality of play.
"Sports are about winning, even if you are on a lesser team or in an individual sport. When Jacobs faces a kid in the 100 who does 12 and 5, the kid knows he doesn't have a chance to beat him, yet that day Jacobs might stop after 10 meters and the kid would have an opportunity to take advantage. You never start off not winning, every time I hear about winless quality I say it is one of the many lies of a world where meritocracy, the pragmatism of results and the cruelty of defeat have disappeared. Exploiting the power of social media, drugged concepts and evaluations are passed around. People without titles are passed off as great coaches, instead I believe that the correct value is determined by the career. When Carlo's generation ends, mine and others of the same age who have won so much, I doubt we will find similarly long and successful careers again. The new phenomena will be chewed up quickly. Today the good coach arrives with more speed and with the same speed is replaced by other transient phenomena. Before it was the pragmatism of results that made a coach good, it was the cruelty of a defeat that forced a professional to go to A, B, C to battle to try to get back to that level."
What do Roma fans understand about you? The support for Mourinho is crazy
"They understood what other fans of my teams had understood. Only at Tottenharn did I not feel the same feelings, there was no empathy, but it was the covid period, the stadium was empty. Impossible to create a relationship. Roma fans understood one very, very simple thing: When I arrive in a place, I wear that shirt and I don't take it off for the whole day, I'm just missing the pajamas, I try to understand the audience, its idiosyncrasies, its weaknesses, their strength, what they may like, what is important, and I become one of them. On the street the interista always greets me with joy, the madridista as well, in the Algarve our hotel was full of Englishmen from Chelsea. They broke my balls (smiles, ed.) every day, legend, legend, legend, photos, autographs. Then I found a Mexican Real fan, same treatment. At Roma I enter my third year, not something I've done often."
Yeah, unusual.
"Two paths that led to two European finals. Two different paths with great difficulties at all levels, I think people have understood that I am one of them. In the book you wrote about me we talked about my change, today I am much less selfish, more selfless. When a coach with 25 titles, now there are 26, comes to a city, to a club, meets a people who have not won so much, he has to get in tune with those people and the team right away."
Indeed, they are two different professions.
"When you coach at a historically top club, the players have only one thing to learn from you and that is to play as a team, because they are made, experienced players with extraordinary quality. Sometimes it was me who learned something from the players. Ask Allegri, Carlo, Ranieri, surely they will tell you that during their careers they also learned from the players, because on the field they have a different perception than us. I came Roma and had to create players who did not exist, the "children" I brought to the first team did not exist. They came into a group to which we tried to transmit the responsibility to win. Even if we don't win as much and if many times we lose our purpose is to teach how to win. The contradiction between our ambitions and our potential intrigues me. I prefer this contradiction, our goal is to win the next game, I refuse to say we have higher goals. If they force me to state concrete goals I answer that they are inferior to our ambition, that they are inferior to what we want to develop as a mentality."
Explain further.
"For example, the many young people, whom I made my debut, young people who have grown with me in these two years. When you work in a club like Real Madrid, Manchester, Chelsea, if you launch one youngster per season you have already done the most. At this stage of my career I needed stability, I felt that something in me had changed. Before I wanted and had to arrive, do, move, I was living a constant state of restlessness. I was in one place, doing my job, winning and moving on, I wanted to go and win somewhere else."
You took a big risk, though. The stakes of Financial Falr Play, the zero market, the condemnation to adapt to emergency. This is Roma, too. today.
"Real, Inter, United, Chelsea twice, at those levels the profile is very, very clear. The investments, the history of the club, the goals all very high: you come to win and win immediately. When I signed with Roma I knew perfectly well what I was getting into."
I have a hard time believing you.
"You have to. Obviously for me coming back to Italy did not mean going into the unknown, this is a country I know well on a cultural, historical and sporting level. I knew that on a social level Roma was an absolutely fantastic club, but also that from the point of view of football history it had won very little, despite so many good coaches and so many first-rate players, and investments as well. When you know the Roma reality you wonder why so little was won. Is it possible that you cannot do something different to help the club, the new ownership? If you ask me now if I regret the choice, I answer no. Absolutely not."
Well, in these two years some moments of discouragement you have experienced.
"Frustration yes, moments of frustration."
In the second year, moreover, things got worse, in terms of available resources.
"The first year I knew the situation, I sensed the ownership's desire to grow, and I thought, okay, this is perfect for me. A profile like mine, someone who has won so much, usually does not easily accept a potentially minor project. I can only think of Ancelotti at Everton."
And before that at Napoli.
"When someone like us accepts this risk, people think 'he is finished,' then Carlo goes to Real Madrid and wins everything there was to win. This experience in Rome is stimulating, rich, of a richness on many levels. Today I have a relationship with my players that is not easy to establish at a top club."
There are those who think that you only accepted Roma because, after all your experiences, you found yourself with a restricted market
"That is not my concern."
What worries you then?
"My happiness. A few days ago I was commenting with my table in Trigoria on one of the first things the Pope said in Lisbon. "You must laugh, you must joke, you must think positively, you must cultivate the sense of humor. My table has all this."
That explains the hug to the imaginary striker.
"Also, sometimes I read that Mourinho is provoking the club, that Mourinho is a wizard of communication."
You're not going to tell me that's not true.
"You think again that I'm joking, but Nuno, who is here with us, he knows what's what, I put my feet crossed on the table twenty times a day."
Yes, but last summer you had the computer off in front of your feet and were stressing the impossibility of shopping.
"Afterwards, however, there was no afterthought. The photo with the imaginary striker was done for a laugh."
Laughing not to get pissed off....
"In recent weeks I have seen coaches in a tizzy, one threatening to leave because he is unhappy with the market, another leaving for the same reason. There is a third who jokes with the fans and says we are not making a market. No provocation, that was not the intention."
So all is well.
"It's not all right, but I have fun even in difficulties. I grumble for an hour and immediately afterwards I come back positive. I don't get depressed, I don't threaten, I don't say I was promised the seas and the mountains, and I don't see the seas or the mountains. One thing I cannot change is my nature, I am not a bullshitter. Relative to the imaginary striker, I can tell you that even if Mbappé arrived next week he would still be late."
You know what they say in Rome? Sleep tight, José.
"This is to say that after 28 days of work, 31 training sessions and 6 games, a total of 37 sessions, plus tactical analysis meetings and more, not having a striker is a problem. By the way, don't mess with Belotti, he stays and will have a much more productive season."
Did you want Pinto?
"Me, yes me. But..."
But?
"After the departure, in quotes, of Tammy, we are in a situation that no coach in the world would like. I find it impossible to say that I am happy. To claim, though, that I am at open war with society, with Pinto, that I am not happy, is very wrong. Pinto knows that we are late, even the propiety knows it, in the end what really suffers is those who work and those who against Salernitana will have to enter the field with the best possible team. Pissed off no, depressed no. Just kidding, as the Pope wants, especially in difficulties, he repeats that difficulties are part of life, without difficulties it is more difficult to experience great joys. Twenty years ago I would have messed up, twenty years ago I would have been pissed off." "From my first Chelsea" continues "I left because I was really at war with a sporting director. I didn't like him, I had no relationship, the market a disaster, it was 2008. Today it's 2023 and I'm someone else."
Let's talk about your relationship with Tiago Pinto. Clarify it once and for all.
"This is not a new thing for me. People may have a different perception, but I have always had an excellent relationship with the companies I have worked. I left by my own decision when I felt that the time had come. With the exception of Tottenham, exonerated two days before playing a final, a crazy thing."
The fact that you're an extraordinary communicator has always overshadowed the second place to the greatness of the technician. You are often blamed for the poor quality of play.
"Sports are about winning, even if you are on a lesser team or in an individual sport. When Jacobs faces a kid in the 100 who does 12 and 5, the kid knows he doesn't have a chance to beat him, yet that day Jacobs might stop after 10 meters and the kid would have an opportunity to take advantage. You never start off not winning, every time I hear about winless quality I say it is one of the many lies of a world where meritocracy, the pragmatism of results and the cruelty of defeat have disappeared. Exploiting the power of social media, drugged concepts and evaluations are passed around. People without titles are passed off as great coaches, instead I believe that the correct value is determined by the career. When Carlo's generation ends, mine and others of the same age who have won so much, I doubt we will find similarly long and successful careers again. The new phenomena will be chewed up quickly. Today the good coach arrives with more speed and with the same speed is replaced by other transient phenomena. Before it was the pragmatism of results that made a coach good, it was the cruelty of a defeat that forced a professional to go to A, B, C to battle to try to get back to that level."
What do Roma fans understand about you? The support for Mourinho is crazy
"They understood what other fans of my teams had understood. Only at Tottenharn did I not feel the same feelings, there was no empathy, but it was the covid period, the stadium was empty. Impossible to create a relationship. Roma fans understood one very, very simple thing: When I arrive in a place, I wear that shirt and I don't take it off for the whole day, I'm just missing the pajamas, I try to understand the audience, its idiosyncrasies, its weaknesses, their strength, what they may like, what is important, and I become one of them. On the street the interista always greets me with joy, the madridista as well, in the Algarve our hotel was full of Englishmen from Chelsea. They broke my balls (smiles, ed.) every day, legend, legend, legend, photos, autographs. Then I found a Mexican Real fan, same treatment. At Roma I enter my third year, not something I've done often."
Yeah, unusual.
"Two paths that led to two European finals. Two different paths with great difficulties at all levels, I think people have understood that I am one of them. In the book you wrote about me we talked about my change, today I am much less selfish, more selfless. When a coach with 25 titles, now there are 26, comes to a city, to a club, meets a people who have not won so much, he has to get in tune with those people and the team right away."
Indeed, they are two different professions.
"When you coach at a historically top club, the players have only one thing to learn from you and that is to play as a team, because they are made, experienced players with extraordinary quality. Sometimes it was me who learned something from the players. Ask Allegri, Carlo, Ranieri, surely they will tell you that during their careers they also learned from the players, because on the field they have a different perception than us. I came Roma and had to create players who did not exist, the "children" I brought to the first team did not exist. They came into a group to which we tried to transmit the responsibility to win. Even if we don't win as much and if many times we lose our purpose is to teach how to win. The contradiction between our ambitions and our potential intrigues me. I prefer this contradiction, our goal is to win the next game, I refuse to say we have higher goals. If they force me to state concrete goals I answer that they are inferior to our ambition, that they are inferior to what we want to develop as a mentality."
Particularly this year you have had a bad relationship with institutions and referees. They have called you rude, provocative, your bench is always too agitated. Strategy?
"If we do Uefa this way and Italy that way, I feel much better when I talk about Uefa and less about Italy. In Italy I felt attacked, they violated my freedom as a man, my freedom as passionate man, my freedom not as a great coach, because in these situations there are no great or small coaches., we are all men. I don't feel comfortable here anymore. I'm afraid of getting more disqualifications, I'm afraid of having to go back and hear everything I've heard or read these past two years. If you tell me Jose, let's talk about Budapest, I'm in. But if you ask me to talk about Italy, political defeats, opinions expressed by people and even insults received, it bothers me. I said fear, maybe fear is too much, annoyance is better. I think, at the institutional level, they should have treated me differently, as a man of great international experience, one who has coached in England, in Spain."
It is true, however, that you have always had a contentious relationship with the refereeing class.
"I said the same things about Chiffi that Modric said about Orsato, exactly the same. I love Modric, but I disagree with him when he says that Orsato is a poor referee. Orsato is very good. I spoke my mind about Chiffi and you saw the consequences. Modric spoke after a World Cup semifinal and it reached billions of people, I spoke at the end of Monza-Roma. The Ballon d'Or suffered no disqualification, I, on the other hand, have suffered pillory. If you want to talk about Budapest, that is certainly better."
4-day disqualification.
"Budapest, from a human point of view, was one of the most beautiful experiences of my career, because I saw everything, beautiful things, I saw a procession of Romanism, I saw people who definitely didn't eat well for a few weeks just to be there, I saw a solid group of players, the people who work next to us in Trigoria, with incredible passion. I saw people chasing an absolutely fantastic dream and experienced the sadness of defeat. Bobby Robson used to repeat to me often that in the moment of sadness you have to think about the joy of those who have won. I followed his advice, I wanted to be close to our people and we respected the joy of the Sevilla fans, we greeted our Spanish colleagues, we behaved, inside the field, with exceptional fairness and humility."
But then you went down into the tunnel to say something to referee Taylor.
"Taylor wasn't there, he wasn't there."
How was he not there?
"Taylor had stayed inside the stadium and the next day they found him at the airport."
Sorry, but who was the "fckin disgrace" aimed at?
"There the others, not Taylor, there were the fourth man, the assistants, Rosetti and Howard Webb, the technical director of the Premier referees, Taylor was not there. I was telling you that from a human point of view it was a fantastic, exceptional experience, also because, in the sixth final, I lost for the first time, I knew the good side of the European party and I had never experienced the bad. That's why I say that from a human point of view it it somehow enriched me."
Back to Taylor.
"I'll explain what happened, the truth. The game ends, I walk onto the field I walk in with my family and the players' families, I see so many people crying, I never cry after a defeat.... I absorb all those emotions. I come back because I want to be with the players in that moment of absolute sadness, and with the fans I take the players to the fans and the Sevilla players and to receive the medals, we participate in the ceremony, we are impeccable. In those minutes I felt that I had to be the father of the family, that's why I told the group, "I'll be with you again next year." The reaction of the boys was wonderful, in that moment it was all over."
Had you thought about leaving?
"No."
Hmmm...
"I've always done my job without thinking about the later."
Besides, you still have a year left on your contract.
"You know how contracts are in the heat. When it's over, we go back to the locker room, go down to the garage, and into the garage comes the referee group. With Webb I have a good relationship, as with Rosetti. They have both refereed games of mine, Webb even the Champions League final with Inter in Madrid. I know I was not elegant, but I did not insult anyone. "Fcking disgrace" is very similar to the Italian "cazzo!", an exclamation, an outburst, or the Portuguese "foda pra caralho." I went to Rosetti and told him, "referee", I call him, "referee, is it penalty or not penalty?" Rosetti did what referees usually do, he didn't answer me. I repeated the question to Webb, he put his hand on my shoulder and said "Jose, yes, it's penalty." Webb did what I would have liked Taylor to have done. Because if Taylor or someone in his place had come to us after the game, in the crying locker room, and said, "I was wrong, we were wrong, I'm sorry," not only would it have ended there, but he would have had our respect, and our admiration. We all make mistakes, maybe during that game I made mistakes too. I keep thinking one thing: Taylor is good, not to say very good, positive even the relationship I had in England, he seems to me a decent man, I never questioned his honesty. The only thing I say and will always say is that it was a penalty and with that penalty there Roma could have won. Before that penalty I did not like his direction at all, I did not like his technical, disciplinary choices, however I still think he is a very good referee and if next season we get him back, no problem, I am sincere."
They took three quarters of the cup away from you.
"The next day the airport incident happened, but I had nothing to do with that incident. It was the reaction of a group of fans, I had nothing to do with it at all. To my surprise, two days later I got a message from a friend of Uefa over the years I have made friends everywhere, not only enemies. "My friend" wrote me "you are one of the greatest in this sport, however, I give you a piece of advice, publicly censure the behavior of the Roma fans at the airport, I am telling you this because I am your friend." My response was, if Uefa or Taylor apologize to the Roma fans, I criticize the behavior at the airport and apologize. Immediately after that I went to the club and said: from today and until the sanction comes out, which is already ready, I will be the focus of sad refereeing and sad behavior of the fans at the airport, as well as my attitude in the garage. But now I need your support and strong communication. If you ask me what was in two years and two months at Roma the thing that made me feel most fragile, I answer that it was not the departure of Mkhitaryan, losing a player I like so much and playing a year and a half with only 4 central defenders when it is normal to have 6. The saddest thing was not being supported by the club in such a situation. I will discount the 4 games, I can't look at Uefa in a negative way, it will be 4 games where I will feel like a fan. It will be hard for us, it will be hard for me, hard for the team, hard for my assistants, and what we are trying to do mainly is to prepare the players for my absence for 6 games. Rapetti, the athletic trainer, is highly regarded and respected by the players, he has natural leadership. We know it is a very, very, very difficult mission. If Budapest was a dream, we now cultivate another one, Dublin, and we will face the competition to get there."
The Friedkins' absence: for a long time, months, you had no contact with the property
"Ownership is ownership. I have always respected the ownership and the people, beyond the role. I feel that from their side there is respect and a lot of esteem for the coach. The profile of the relationship is always determined by the ownership. In all these years I have always repeated that I am called and paid well to solve problems, not to create them. It is ownership that has to talk about you and it is ownership that has to talk to you."
You are about to start the championship with only one year left on your contract.
"Nothing changes. For a few days I thought enough children, why should I build children if next year I won't be here? However, the good José, the professional and smiling, positive José immediately took over: first of all, I work for the club; second, for this club it is super important to create certain prerequisites: as we have seen, it was precisely the children, at a very difficult time for Pinto, who secured the 30 million needed to satisfy a terrible settlement agreement. And, more importantly still, what fault do the children have if I only have one year on my contract? Now I tell you that Pagano will become good, I don't want to say that about Pisilli yet, because I see him more as a child, even physically, he will have to have a great evolution, however, he has the right head always, not only now that we have been working together for a month. Pagano will be like Bove."
Let's go back to the Tiago Pinto-Mourinho relationship. Did we write a lot of crap?
"Yes.
Thank you, I will report.
"For one thing, we are together practically every day. Like you and me now, him on one side of the table and me on the other."
Did you know each other even before you were at Roma?
"No, no. Pinto was working in Portugal when I was abroad. We had never crossed paths. Ours is a relationship of respect, even a formal one. I don't call him 'tu,' although he could be my son, for me he is the director."
Stop at the lei?
"I give him the lei, the director, and he returns the lei, for him I am the coach We don't always agree, this one doesn't. He has a more direct and constant relationship with the company, because it's part of his job. To go back to a very long time ago, when Dzeko left, it was very hard to accept, a misfortune Tammy got injured on June 5, we are talking about 63, 64 days and for me there is a name, there is one, because I am usually very objective and pragmatic, there is one, but it is not possible to get him, so I was told."
Morata.
"I'm just telling you it's not Mbappé."
Come on now, it's Morata.
"He is not Mbappé, however I always think, even when we disagree, that Pinto wants the same things I want."
Are you sure?
"Yes I am sure, sure. The common goal is for the team to get the best possible result."
I heard that you will change something tactically, there is also talk of starting from the bottom.
"I am not envious, however, there are coaches-and I was one of them-who can have exactly what they want, period, there is no history. I always say, jokingly, this is the player I want, however, he is too expensive. A president answered me: of soccer you understand, of numbers I do."
It was Moratti.
"No, Abramovic. If this is the player you want, this is the player you will get, he said. The player was Michael Essien. Lyon demanded an immoral amount of money. I had also given other names, the second, the third. He took Essien. This is to say that when you enjoy this privilege you can decide how to play, you can find an alternative solution; you can do a number of good things. Otherwise you have to adapt to the new reality and try to do things that match the characteristics of the players. There is no other way. If you ask a player things that he is not capable of, and the team to go beyond their technical qualities, you put them in trouble and you can't find a balance in terms of results."
Tell me about Dybala.
"When he arrived on the first of August and the clause was no longer exercisable, I slept better, he is of the highest level and for us he is gold, we cannot give up on him. When we are forced to do so because he is injured or because he is tired or he came back cooked from the national team, it is serious trouble. His quality as a player didn't surprise me at all. It's the kid that impressed me, I always say that the good, good, good ones are like that: humble, respectful to colleagues, I've been through many generations, because I've been coaching as an assistant since '92 and even before that, since '91, and this kid is not from this generation. He's great, I tell you he's great, people know his potential as a player, I can tell you the potential as a guy is not inferior at all."
In the summer you received two offers from Arabia.
"Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli."
Did you think about it?
"Yes. Before I went to the meeting I informed the property making it clear that I was not going to accept. At home I said exactly the same thing. For one side I felt captive of the word given to the players in Budapest and to the fans after Spezia, mimicking permanence. But if you ask me if I did not accept only for this reason, I answer no, not only for this reason."
A definitive no?
"It is not definitive, it is not. In the past I turned down the most incredible proposal a coach ever received when China. They offered me the bench of the national team and of a club in which all the nationals would play. An indecent economic proposal, out of this world and out of all parameters."
Do you still see yourself at a top club in the future?
"I am better than ever. That's what they say, right?"
Ancelotti revealed to me that if they sent him away this year, Fiorentino would certainly take you back.
"I tell you, as an Ancelottian and a Madridista, I hope he stays at Real for a long time."
By going to Italy you made much less money for your collaborators, primarily Nuno Santos.
"Nuno would follow me even to Borealis.... Two things can make an ally less good. The first, when motivation is lacking; the second, when you think you already know everything. When you hide behind your history, you believe that soccer has not evolved and that the kids today are the same as they were 20 years ago, and the support structures are the same as they were then, that's when you become less good, finished."
So in these two years you have improved, grown.
"I feel grown up, yes."
They say, "Mourinho is just a great motivator." Reductive, no?
"If they say he's a great motivator, a great tactician, and a great field coach, if they say all that, that's fine. When I started, I obviously spoke Portuguese, however I had been in Barcelona and spoke Catalan, Castilian, French because I had studied it when I was young, and English, not yet Italian. In those years the coach didn't interact with young people, it was a completely different world. Less global, there were not so many foreign coaches abroad, I spoke 5 languages and people said, ah this one is more an academic than a coach. Twenty years later learning languages is part of high-level coaching courses. They put so many labels on me."
How importart is tactics?
"It is important, but the players should not be slaves to tactics, the better the players are, the more free they are to express themselves. When you have a less talented team the tactical work has to increase, because the players have to learn how to solve problems. I always prefer to talk about strategy, which is a different thing, about game plan. The team where I worked least tactically was Real Madrid: 100 points, 34 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, 121 goals scored and plus 88 goal difference. Di Maria, Higuain, Benzema, Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Modric, Ózil. I worked on discipline and principles of play. Where I pushed the most on tactics was with Porto and Roma."
Which coach, from the present or the past, do you most see yourself in?
I love the career coach, I myself am one. If they tell me that the guy is great, I answer "we'll see, let's hope, let's hope he becomes one." But don't tell me that someone who coaches for two years or someone who has also won something in the first is good, because for me to be great is to have a career and many titles, it's not to coach a year or two and then disappear. Ancelotti won the first international cup in 2003 the last one in 2023, I won the first one in 2004 and the last one in 2022, it's an extraordinary thing. After eighteen, twenty years, always first. Carlo for me is a great one. The good of today I want to see him again tomorrow."
"If we do Uefa this way and Italy that way, I feel much better when I talk about Uefa and less about Italy. In Italy I felt attacked, they violated my freedom as a man, my freedom as passionate man, my freedom not as a great coach, because in these situations there are no great or small coaches., we are all men. I don't feel comfortable here anymore. I'm afraid of getting more disqualifications, I'm afraid of having to go back and hear everything I've heard or read these past two years. If you tell me Jose, let's talk about Budapest, I'm in. But if you ask me to talk about Italy, political defeats, opinions expressed by people and even insults received, it bothers me. I said fear, maybe fear is too much, annoyance is better. I think, at the institutional level, they should have treated me differently, as a man of great international experience, one who has coached in England, in Spain."
It is true, however, that you have always had a contentious relationship with the refereeing class.
"I said the same things about Chiffi that Modric said about Orsato, exactly the same. I love Modric, but I disagree with him when he says that Orsato is a poor referee. Orsato is very good. I spoke my mind about Chiffi and you saw the consequences. Modric spoke after a World Cup semifinal and it reached billions of people, I spoke at the end of Monza-Roma. The Ballon d'Or suffered no disqualification, I, on the other hand, have suffered pillory. If you want to talk about Budapest, that is certainly better."
4-day disqualification.
"Budapest, from a human point of view, was one of the most beautiful experiences of my career, because I saw everything, beautiful things, I saw a procession of Romanism, I saw people who definitely didn't eat well for a few weeks just to be there, I saw a solid group of players, the people who work next to us in Trigoria, with incredible passion. I saw people chasing an absolutely fantastic dream and experienced the sadness of defeat. Bobby Robson used to repeat to me often that in the moment of sadness you have to think about the joy of those who have won. I followed his advice, I wanted to be close to our people and we respected the joy of the Sevilla fans, we greeted our Spanish colleagues, we behaved, inside the field, with exceptional fairness and humility."
But then you went down into the tunnel to say something to referee Taylor.
"Taylor wasn't there, he wasn't there."
How was he not there?
"Taylor had stayed inside the stadium and the next day they found him at the airport."
Sorry, but who was the "fckin disgrace" aimed at?
"There the others, not Taylor, there were the fourth man, the assistants, Rosetti and Howard Webb, the technical director of the Premier referees, Taylor was not there. I was telling you that from a human point of view it was a fantastic, exceptional experience, also because, in the sixth final, I lost for the first time, I knew the good side of the European party and I had never experienced the bad. That's why I say that from a human point of view it it somehow enriched me."
Back to Taylor.
"I'll explain what happened, the truth. The game ends, I walk onto the field I walk in with my family and the players' families, I see so many people crying, I never cry after a defeat.... I absorb all those emotions. I come back because I want to be with the players in that moment of absolute sadness, and with the fans I take the players to the fans and the Sevilla players and to receive the medals, we participate in the ceremony, we are impeccable. In those minutes I felt that I had to be the father of the family, that's why I told the group, "I'll be with you again next year." The reaction of the boys was wonderful, in that moment it was all over."
Had you thought about leaving?
"No."
Hmmm...
"I've always done my job without thinking about the later."
Besides, you still have a year left on your contract.
"You know how contracts are in the heat. When it's over, we go back to the locker room, go down to the garage, and into the garage comes the referee group. With Webb I have a good relationship, as with Rosetti. They have both refereed games of mine, Webb even the Champions League final with Inter in Madrid. I know I was not elegant, but I did not insult anyone. "Fcking disgrace" is very similar to the Italian "cazzo!", an exclamation, an outburst, or the Portuguese "foda pra caralho." I went to Rosetti and told him, "referee", I call him, "referee, is it penalty or not penalty?" Rosetti did what referees usually do, he didn't answer me. I repeated the question to Webb, he put his hand on my shoulder and said "Jose, yes, it's penalty." Webb did what I would have liked Taylor to have done. Because if Taylor or someone in his place had come to us after the game, in the crying locker room, and said, "I was wrong, we were wrong, I'm sorry," not only would it have ended there, but he would have had our respect, and our admiration. We all make mistakes, maybe during that game I made mistakes too. I keep thinking one thing: Taylor is good, not to say very good, positive even the relationship I had in England, he seems to me a decent man, I never questioned his honesty. The only thing I say and will always say is that it was a penalty and with that penalty there Roma could have won. Before that penalty I did not like his direction at all, I did not like his technical, disciplinary choices, however I still think he is a very good referee and if next season we get him back, no problem, I am sincere."
They took three quarters of the cup away from you.
"The next day the airport incident happened, but I had nothing to do with that incident. It was the reaction of a group of fans, I had nothing to do with it at all. To my surprise, two days later I got a message from a friend of Uefa over the years I have made friends everywhere, not only enemies. "My friend" wrote me "you are one of the greatest in this sport, however, I give you a piece of advice, publicly censure the behavior of the Roma fans at the airport, I am telling you this because I am your friend." My response was, if Uefa or Taylor apologize to the Roma fans, I criticize the behavior at the airport and apologize. Immediately after that I went to the club and said: from today and until the sanction comes out, which is already ready, I will be the focus of sad refereeing and sad behavior of the fans at the airport, as well as my attitude in the garage. But now I need your support and strong communication. If you ask me what was in two years and two months at Roma the thing that made me feel most fragile, I answer that it was not the departure of Mkhitaryan, losing a player I like so much and playing a year and a half with only 4 central defenders when it is normal to have 6. The saddest thing was not being supported by the club in such a situation. I will discount the 4 games, I can't look at Uefa in a negative way, it will be 4 games where I will feel like a fan. It will be hard for us, it will be hard for me, hard for the team, hard for my assistants, and what we are trying to do mainly is to prepare the players for my absence for 6 games. Rapetti, the athletic trainer, is highly regarded and respected by the players, he has natural leadership. We know it is a very, very, very difficult mission. If Budapest was a dream, we now cultivate another one, Dublin, and we will face the competition to get there."
The Friedkins' absence: for a long time, months, you had no contact with the property
"Ownership is ownership. I have always respected the ownership and the people, beyond the role. I feel that from their side there is respect and a lot of esteem for the coach. The profile of the relationship is always determined by the ownership. In all these years I have always repeated that I am called and paid well to solve problems, not to create them. It is ownership that has to talk about you and it is ownership that has to talk to you."
You are about to start the championship with only one year left on your contract.
"Nothing changes. For a few days I thought enough children, why should I build children if next year I won't be here? However, the good José, the professional and smiling, positive José immediately took over: first of all, I work for the club; second, for this club it is super important to create certain prerequisites: as we have seen, it was precisely the children, at a very difficult time for Pinto, who secured the 30 million needed to satisfy a terrible settlement agreement. And, more importantly still, what fault do the children have if I only have one year on my contract? Now I tell you that Pagano will become good, I don't want to say that about Pisilli yet, because I see him more as a child, even physically, he will have to have a great evolution, however, he has the right head always, not only now that we have been working together for a month. Pagano will be like Bove."
Let's go back to the Tiago Pinto-Mourinho relationship. Did we write a lot of crap?
"Yes.
Thank you, I will report.
"For one thing, we are together practically every day. Like you and me now, him on one side of the table and me on the other."
Did you know each other even before you were at Roma?
"No, no. Pinto was working in Portugal when I was abroad. We had never crossed paths. Ours is a relationship of respect, even a formal one. I don't call him 'tu,' although he could be my son, for me he is the director."
Stop at the lei?
"I give him the lei, the director, and he returns the lei, for him I am the coach We don't always agree, this one doesn't. He has a more direct and constant relationship with the company, because it's part of his job. To go back to a very long time ago, when Dzeko left, it was very hard to accept, a misfortune Tammy got injured on June 5, we are talking about 63, 64 days and for me there is a name, there is one, because I am usually very objective and pragmatic, there is one, but it is not possible to get him, so I was told."
Morata.
"I'm just telling you it's not Mbappé."
Come on now, it's Morata.
"He is not Mbappé, however I always think, even when we disagree, that Pinto wants the same things I want."
Are you sure?
"Yes I am sure, sure. The common goal is for the team to get the best possible result."
I heard that you will change something tactically, there is also talk of starting from the bottom.
"I am not envious, however, there are coaches-and I was one of them-who can have exactly what they want, period, there is no history. I always say, jokingly, this is the player I want, however, he is too expensive. A president answered me: of soccer you understand, of numbers I do."
It was Moratti.
"No, Abramovic. If this is the player you want, this is the player you will get, he said. The player was Michael Essien. Lyon demanded an immoral amount of money. I had also given other names, the second, the third. He took Essien. This is to say that when you enjoy this privilege you can decide how to play, you can find an alternative solution; you can do a number of good things. Otherwise you have to adapt to the new reality and try to do things that match the characteristics of the players. There is no other way. If you ask a player things that he is not capable of, and the team to go beyond their technical qualities, you put them in trouble and you can't find a balance in terms of results."
Tell me about Dybala.
"When he arrived on the first of August and the clause was no longer exercisable, I slept better, he is of the highest level and for us he is gold, we cannot give up on him. When we are forced to do so because he is injured or because he is tired or he came back cooked from the national team, it is serious trouble. His quality as a player didn't surprise me at all. It's the kid that impressed me, I always say that the good, good, good ones are like that: humble, respectful to colleagues, I've been through many generations, because I've been coaching as an assistant since '92 and even before that, since '91, and this kid is not from this generation. He's great, I tell you he's great, people know his potential as a player, I can tell you the potential as a guy is not inferior at all."
In the summer you received two offers from Arabia.
"Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli."
Did you think about it?
"Yes. Before I went to the meeting I informed the property making it clear that I was not going to accept. At home I said exactly the same thing. For one side I felt captive of the word given to the players in Budapest and to the fans after Spezia, mimicking permanence. But if you ask me if I did not accept only for this reason, I answer no, not only for this reason."
A definitive no?
"It is not definitive, it is not. In the past I turned down the most incredible proposal a coach ever received when China. They offered me the bench of the national team and of a club in which all the nationals would play. An indecent economic proposal, out of this world and out of all parameters."
Do you still see yourself at a top club in the future?
"I am better than ever. That's what they say, right?"
Ancelotti revealed to me that if they sent him away this year, Fiorentino would certainly take you back.
"I tell you, as an Ancelottian and a Madridista, I hope he stays at Real for a long time."
By going to Italy you made much less money for your collaborators, primarily Nuno Santos.
"Nuno would follow me even to Borealis.... Two things can make an ally less good. The first, when motivation is lacking; the second, when you think you already know everything. When you hide behind your history, you believe that soccer has not evolved and that the kids today are the same as they were 20 years ago, and the support structures are the same as they were then, that's when you become less good, finished."
So in these two years you have improved, grown.
"I feel grown up, yes."
They say, "Mourinho is just a great motivator." Reductive, no?
"If they say he's a great motivator, a great tactician, and a great field coach, if they say all that, that's fine. When I started, I obviously spoke Portuguese, however I had been in Barcelona and spoke Catalan, Castilian, French because I had studied it when I was young, and English, not yet Italian. In those years the coach didn't interact with young people, it was a completely different world. Less global, there were not so many foreign coaches abroad, I spoke 5 languages and people said, ah this one is more an academic than a coach. Twenty years later learning languages is part of high-level coaching courses. They put so many labels on me."
How importart is tactics?
"It is important, but the players should not be slaves to tactics, the better the players are, the more free they are to express themselves. When you have a less talented team the tactical work has to increase, because the players have to learn how to solve problems. I always prefer to talk about strategy, which is a different thing, about game plan. The team where I worked least tactically was Real Madrid: 100 points, 34 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, 121 goals scored and plus 88 goal difference. Di Maria, Higuain, Benzema, Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Modric, Ózil. I worked on discipline and principles of play. Where I pushed the most on tactics was with Porto and Roma."
Which coach, from the present or the past, do you most see yourself in?
I love the career coach, I myself am one. If they tell me that the guy is great, I answer "we'll see, let's hope, let's hope he becomes one." But don't tell me that someone who coaches for two years or someone who has also won something in the first is good, because for me to be great is to have a career and many titles, it's not to coach a year or two and then disappear. Ancelotti won the first international cup in 2003 the last one in 2023, I won the first one in 2004 and the last one in 2022, it's an extraordinary thing. After eighteen, twenty years, always first. Carlo for me is a great one. The good of today I want to see him again tomorrow."
Source https://www.corrieredellosport.it/n...inho_intervista_esclusiva_la_mia_seconda_vita
Have Roma signed anyone decent ? Or are they in for a tough time ?
Plus they have had to sell guys like Ibanez that they most definitely would not have wanted to lose. Last summer was much the same, I am amazed at how calm Jose has been in general, very much out of character.
Ya this Roma project has hardly had any investment so it will be hard to achieve more then they have on the last 2 season in Europe under Jose.
Ndicka, Aouar, Kristensen (ugh). We reached our goal of 30m before the end of June as demanded by UEFA's signed settlement agreement, we sold Ibanez for around 30m, but we're still having trouble signing a striker (Marcos Leonardo?) and a second midfielder (Renato Sanches?). Probably another 6-7th place season.
| Arrivals | Expenditure | ||
| 1 | Milan | 7 | €90.5m |
| 2 | Juventus | 4 | €77.6m |
| 3 | Sassuolo | 9 | €52m |
| 4 | Napoli | 3 | €45m |
| 5 | Monza | 12 | €41m |
| 6 | Atalanta | 4 | €38m |
| 7 | Torino | 6 | €27.5m |
| 8 | Inter | 7 | €27.5m |
| 9 | Genoa | 10 | €26.5m |
| 10 | Lazio | 3 | €23.9m |
| 11 | Bologna | 4 | €18.5m |
| 12 | Salernitana | 3 | €17.5m |
| 13 | Udinese | 8 | €12.8m |
| 14 | Lecce | 8 | €12.4m |
| 15 | Fiorentina | 2 | €12m |
| 16 | Cagliari | 8 | €9m |
| 17 | Verona | 5 | €6.5m |
| 18 | Empoli | 10 | €6.2m |
| 19 | Frosinone | 10 | €4.4m |
| 20 | Roma | 3 | - |
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Currently 2 down to Verona.
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Third season syndrome is real. Off to Saudi in a few weeks.
Ended up at 9M with the 5 spend on Lukaku's loan... Milan (who finished fourth last season) spend more than 12 times the money that Roma could afford. And this is the second year in a row that Roma had to do a cheap mercato... Mourinho is not going to improve their domestic record with this...
| League position | Club | Expenditure rank | Transfer expenditures | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC Milan | 1 | €114.00m | 0 |
| 2 | SSC Napoli | 2 | €99.00m | 0 |
| 6 | Juventus FC | 3 | €79.60m | -3 |
| 8 | Atalanta BC | 4 | €68.50m | -4 |
| 3 | Inter Milan | 5 | €64.25m | 2 |
| 11 | US Sassuolo | 6 | €63.20m | -5 |
| 15 | Bologna FC 1909 | 7 | €49.00m | -8 |
| 18 | Torino FC | 8 | €47.05m | -10 |
| 5 | ACF Fiorentina | 9 | €43.00m | 4 |
| 9 | AC Monza | 10 | €41.50m | 1 |
| 19 | SS Lazio | 11 | €35.96m | -8 |
| 12 | Genoa CFC | 12 | €28.35m | 0 |
| 13 | US Salernitana 1919 | 13 | €25.80m | 0 |
| 7 | US Lecce | 14 | €21.80m | 7 |
| 16 | Cagliari Calcio | 15 | €21.00m | -1 |
| 17 | Udinese Calcio | 16 | €18.75m | -1 |
| 14 | AS Roma | 17 | €9.30m | 3 |
| 20 | FC Empoli | 18 | €7.20m | -2 |
| 4 | Hellas Verona | 19 | €6.50m | 15 |
| 10 | Frosinone Calcio | 20 | €4.40m | 10 |
He's finished as manager. once again yesterday Roma were truly embarassing to watch.
Milan dominated without doing anything outstanding for 60' when it was 11 v 11 and could easily be 3-0 or even 4-0 up. Then after Tomori was sent off you'd expect Roma to put Milan on the ropes and create chances after chances but did little-to-nothing.
His only chances to finish Serie A top4 is that Dybala and Lukaku stay fit the whole season and perform at top level..
Milan dominated without doing anything outstanding for 60' when it was 11 v 11 and could easily be 3-0 or even 4-0 up. Then after Tomori was sent off you'd expect Roma to put Milan on the ropes and create chances after chances but did little-to-nothing.
His only chances to finish Serie A top4 is that Dybala and Lukaku stay fit the whole season and perform at top level..
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José is still goin on about the Europa League final loss:
““It is a different season to the last, a different competition,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I will also continue to say until the bitter end that we did not lose that Final in Budapest. Every time people talk to me about it, I will tell them that we did not lose.”
This one hurt really, really badly. Not only did it blemish his record in European finals, but I think it also thwarted his not-so-secret plan to get back to the top. He wanted to take Roma to the CL as a big F you to all of his doubters and climb back to the pinnacle of the football world. I have a feeling he knew CL qualification via Europa victory was about as far as he could take Roma and this loss in the final took the wind out of his sails. A return to Madrid or a new adventure at PSG were rumored and now it is only a big fat ball of nothingness. He was envisioning a third CL glory and now must settle for another third-season meltdown with Lukaku at Roma. Gutting. You hate to see it.
““It is a different season to the last, a different competition,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I will also continue to say until the bitter end that we did not lose that Final in Budapest. Every time people talk to me about it, I will tell them that we did not lose.”
This one hurt really, really badly. Not only did it blemish his record in European finals, but I think it also thwarted his not-so-secret plan to get back to the top. He wanted to take Roma to the CL as a big F you to all of his doubters and climb back to the pinnacle of the football world. I have a feeling he knew CL qualification via Europa victory was about as far as he could take Roma and this loss in the final took the wind out of his sails. A return to Madrid or a new adventure at PSG were rumored and now it is only a big fat ball of nothingness. He was envisioning a third CL glory and now must settle for another third-season meltdown with Lukaku at Roma. Gutting. You hate to see it.
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He's washed up.
Goes from winning 7-0 to losing 4-1in space of few weeks
Specialist in failure.
No doubt he'll be pleading poverty as usual but I assume getting in Lukaku on year's loan was a big financial commitment from the hierarchy, him and Dybala upfront should be enough to win games against bottom half at least.
That's the big difference. Last two seasons Roma have been winning majority of games v bottom half but rarely beating top 6-7. Now they're losing at Genoa and Verona and drawing v Torino and Salernitania.
Mourinho will be gone by December as usual in his third season.
That's the big difference. Last two seasons Roma have been winning majority of games v bottom half but rarely beating top 6-7. Now they're losing at Genoa and Verona and drawing v Torino and Salernitania.
Mourinho will be gone by December as usual in his third season.
16th with the second best goal difference in the league...
They haven’t started well despite that 7-0 win a couple weeks back
Where next for guys like Mourinho though?
Saudi land I think unless she just waits for Portugal job to come up in next few years.
Aouar plays for Roma now, wasn't he massively rated at Lyon a few years back?
Roma are paying him a salary way above their own standards… I don’t think any of the few teams in Europe capable of affording this would be interested in him.
Unless he is willing to take a massive pay cut, it should be Saudi Arabia next.