LAST UPDATE | 3 hours ago
ROMA HAVE SACKED manager Jose Mourinho.
The club announced Mourinho’s dismissal in a statement this morning.
“We would like to thank Jose on behalf of all of us at AS Roma for his passion and efforts since his arrival at the club,” said owners Dan and Ryan Friedkin.
“We will always have great memories of his tenure at Roma, but we believe that an immediate change is in the best interests of the club.
“We wish Jose and his assistants all the best in their future endeavours.”
In a short message, Mourinho simply said “Arrivederci, Roma” to supporters on social media, alongside an image of him holding the Europa Conference League trophy.
Mourinho joined Roma in the summer of 2021, and led the club to the Conference League in his first season. Roma were beaten in the final of the Europa League last season, but are ninth after 20 games in this Serie A season, albeit only five points from fourth place and the Champions League places.
His final game in charge was a 3-1 defeat away to AC Milan on Sunday, while Mourinho’s position was greatly damaged by a limp 1-0 defeat to fierce city rivals Lazio in the Coppa Italia earlier last week.
Mourinho’s contract was due to expire in June and although he had repeatedly stated that he wanted to stay on, talks about an extension to his deal never materialised.
The 60-year-old Portuguese was a shock appointment in 2021, Roma’s announcement of his arrival as the replacement to Paulo Fonseca coming almost completely out of the blue.
He immediately became a huge fan favourite, with his image popping up on walls around Rome as supporters dreamed of an end to a trophy drought which stretched back to 2008.
However the magic between Mourinho and the fans began to wear off this term, with poor results and performances partly due to a raft of injuries and summer transfers which haven’t worked out.
Roma have failed to qualify for the money-spinning Champions League under Mourinho’s charge, a big problem for a club operating under Financial Fair Play constraints which struggles to balance its books.
Italian media report that former Roma captain Daniele De Rossi, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, is the favourite to replace Mourinho as coach.
De Rossi is another idol for Roma fans as a local boy done good who played in some of the club’s best teams of the last two decades, alongside fellow icon Francesco Totti.
The 40-year-old has little pedigree as a coach however, his only job at SPAL lasting just four months last season, which finished with the team being relegated to the third-tier Serie C.
With reporting by – © AFP 2024
