José Mourinho’s time at Roma has come to an end. The Italian club announced this Tuesday by surprise the dismissal of the Portuguese coach and his technical collaborators “with immediate effect.” The poor results of this season – especially in the last month, with only one win in nine games – have anticipated his goodbye from the Città Eterna, scheduled for June, when his contract expired.
“We thank José, on behalf of all of us at AS Roma, for the passion and commitment he has shown since becoming a Giallorosso,” said the Friedkin family, owners of the entity. “We will always have great memories of his management, but we believe that, for the good of the club, an immediate change is necessary.” In the statement, the Friedkins inform that the new coach will be announced shortly – the legend Daniele De Rossi sounds like an urgent solution.
Mourinho arrived in Rome in May 2021 and gave the team competitiveness and character, lacking in recent times. He managed to break the club’s title drought, winning the Conference League in 2022. Last season they were on the verge of another continental title, when they lost the Europa League final against Sevilla on penalties.
However, in the current season ‘Mou’ has not been able to draw on the results he champions and the team’s poor football proposal has been laid bare. Roma, with a short squad and depleted by injuries, occupies ninth position in Serie A, with 29 points in 20 games, five points away from the Champions League places, whose objective seems to be faltering more and more despite having one of the best forwards in the championship: Paulo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku.
Roma has been unable to defeat any of the top seven, finished second in the Europa League group behind Slavia Prague and was knocked out of the Italian Cup last week by Lazio, its capital rival. All of them are sufficient reasons to make this decision, unexpected despite this, since for a few days the entity also does not have a sports director – Tiago Pinto’s contract was terminated – and there was even talk of a possible renewal of the Portuguese for the next course just a month ago.
Mourinho’s dismissal did not seem imminent either because the team has to play, due to sponsorship commitments, a friendly on January 24 in Saudi Arabia. The one from Setúbal was one of the main attractions in a country that already tempted him with petrodollars last summer, a place where sooner or later he will end up training, as ‘Mou’ himself confessed in recent interviews. At that moment he did not want to leave Trigoria out of loyalty to a club and especially to a fan that he has adored from the first moment and to which the Portuguese has responded with stimulating messages. The fans have been his greatest support. “The fans are unique and for me a separation would be hard. If it has to happen it won’t be on my part,” he said days ago.
In his first season, Mourinho offered an image very different from what the world of football had become accustomed to. He seemed more relaxed and less belligerent than usual. However, with the passage of time the tension has increased and the waters returned to its channel. His expulsions, sanctions and fines have been a constant in recent months. He has even gone so far as to prohibit his players from speaking after games as a sign of protest against the refereeing.
He has also had his disagreements with the press, absenting himself from conferences or deciding to respond in Portuguese when he speaks perfect Italian. And there have been messages to his staff for poor performance and to the board for not satisfying all of his wishes in the market – in many cases impossible due to the limitations of financial fair play. Mourinho DNA.
It confirms, if it was not already known, the decline of The Special One on the benches. Since his relationship with Real Madrid ended in 2013, the Portuguese has been dismissed from all of his teams mid-season: Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and now Roma. At 60 years old, Saudi Arabia seems the only escape for him. On the networks he said goodbye by publishing an image with the title of the Conference accompanied by the message “arrivederci, Roma”, as the song says.
