ROME, ITALY – JANUARY 10: Jose Mourinho manager of AS Roma before the Coppa Italia quarter-finals … [+]
The end came sooner than most expected, and it was swift. The Jose Mourinho era at Roma is officially history after the club’s owners, the Friedkin Group, decided the 3-1 loss to Milan on Sunday night was one defeat too many.
Mourinho looked visibly emotional as he pulled away from Trigoria, Roma’s training ground in the south-west corner of the capital. Surrounded by Romanisti who gathered to wish Mourinho well, the 60-year-old looked a crestfallen figure, perhaps a man realising he may never manage a top club again.
Despite only one league win in the last six and losing to arch rivals Lazio in the Coppa Italia, most expected Mourinho to at least see out the season in the Eternal City. His contract was due to expire this summer and most felt that while a renewal was doubtful, he wouldn’t be relived of his duties given what he’d brought to Roma since arriving in the summer of 2021.
But with Roma languishing just inside the top half of the table and Champions League desperately needed, the Friedkin’s decided to act in order to save the season.
Club legend Daniele De Rossi has been appointed as the club’s new manager for the rest of the campaign. De Rossi’s first foray into management with SPAL last season was a disaster, with only three wins in 17 games but, other than Francesco Totti, no one is more qualified than De Rossi as pertains to the monumental pressure that comes with living and playing for Roma, and the hope is that De Rossi can immediately force an upswing in results.
So how best to examine Mourinho’s legacy at Roma, now that all is said and done? Was his dismissal fair?
As ever with Mourinho, it’s not a case of black-and-white, but multiple shades of grey. On the one hand, Mourinho delivered Roma’s first trophy for 14 years, seeing off Feyenoord in the inaugural season of the UEFA
EFA
The Mourinho effect ensured that Roma sold out the 70,000-seater Stadio Olimpico 40 consecutive times, something never seen before in the club’s history. The devotion from the Giallorossi fans towards Mourinho never wavered, even as the endgame approached and the dire football was matched with dire results, Mourinho still had the support of arguably the most rabid — and the most hard to please — fans in the Italian game.
Moreover, his sheer cult of personality meant the club could sign the likes of Tammy Abraham, Paulo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku, all of whom wouldn’t be there if not for Mourinho’s ever-lasting charisma. Due to the club’s fragile financial state, Mourinho also ushered through young talent in the shape of Nicola Zalewski and Edoardo Bove.
On the other hand, there can be little doubt that with Roma’s wage bill the third highest in the division, results and performance should’ve been better. Mourinho has often used the ‘we have no money’ card when seeking an alibi for bad results, but in his first summer the club spent over $108m (€100m) in backing him, while Dybala and Lukaku have arrived on a big salary and a sizeable loan fee.
Mourinho himself was also the second highest paid coach in Serie A, just behind Juventus boss Max Allegri. Mourinho was reportedly earning $10m-per-season during his second stint in Serie A, and the Friedkin’s could rightly question ask whether Mourinho was worth the money over the last 18 months. it’s been reported by Sky Sport Italia that Mourinho’s constant blaming of officials for defeats grated on the American ownership, particularly in the ugly aftermath of the Europa League final in Budapest and his harassment of English referee Anthony Taylor. Mourinho’s antics didn’t reflect well on the ownership, but yet was kept on last summer.
Another issue for the Friedkin’s was Roma’s brand of football under Mourinho. By now one knows what they are getting when they hire Mourinho as coach, yet watching Roma since he arrived was a gruelling exercise in endurance, to sit through 90 minutes of a Roma game wasn’t for the weak of heart, the football was more than often turgid and negative in the extreme. This is acceptable when results are produced, but when they aren’t, the end is usually inevitable.
While Mourinho’s quip about Roma having ‘no money’ is a falsity, it can’t be disputed that his time at the club was hamstrung by austere FFP measures. The Mourinho era was undoubtedly hurt by the damaging legacy of the Monchi years. Outgoing sporting director Tiago Pinto made his own mistakes on the market (signing Eldor Shomurdov for $19m (€18m) from Genoa a prime example), but his were nowhere near as disastrous as Monchi’s and the far-reaching consequence of this was Pinto walking a fine line between attempting to reduce Roma’s exorbitant wage bill and arm Mourinho with the players he wanted in order to bring success.
Champions League football would’ve alleviated that problem yet Mourinho, in the end, never managed to bring Roma back to the promised land. In retrospect, the Europa League final defeat to Sevilla was the beginning of the end, and what’s followed has been a very long hangover. Had the final in Budapest been won, it would’ve represented not just another trophy, but also more resources to sign better players and really kick on this season.
Whether De Rossi can turn things around with the same group of players is up for debate, yet he has time. Despite the lack of recent results, Roma are only five points away from fourth-placed Fiorentina for the last remaining Champions League spot. Finishing fourth can be achieved, albeit there’s little margin for error at this stage.
As for Mourinho, he’ll be forever loved by Roma fans, but it could be the end of his time in club football, a man whose best years are firmly behind him and as the game continues to pass him by, it remains to be seen who at the upper echelons of the game would take a chance on him.
But for Romanisti, there’ll always be Tirana.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
