And then he left. Once again in its third season. Once again, under a cloud. Once again, with opinion divided.
Roma's decision to fire José Mourinho was made by the club's owners, the Friedkin family, on Monday night and communicated to the coach (and the world, which had focused much more attention on the club since his arrival in 2021) before training on Tuesday morning. .
His contract was due to expire in June and, although he had repeatedly indicated that he was happy to renew it, the club had put all negotiations on hold until the end of the season. That's the kind of moment that makes you wonder why they couldn't have waited and leads you to conclude that there must have been a reason to act now.
Were they right to do so?
To answer that, you need to get past the question of whether or not Mourinho deserved the sacking or whether or not he has done a good job, and address the reality of where Roma are at the moment. And this is the reality: Mourinho was not fired because he had lost the dressing room or because fans were calling for his head: while support for him had cooled among parts of the fan base, especially on social media and the ubiquitous broadcast stations sports radio from Rome. , the fans who attended the game continued to openly (and loudly) support him. Rather, he left because the Friedkins are businessmen and made a business decision.
According to Swiss Ramble, Roma lost €184 million ($200 million) in 2020-21 and €219 million ($238.1 million) the following year, Mourinho's first at the club. Record losses in 2021-22, when they were among Europe's biggest net transfer spenders, meant they breached UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations and were subject to a settlement agreement that restricted their spending.
Indeed, the club had gambled on investing heavily in the team (initially in transfer fees, then in expensive veteran free agents, giving the club the third highest wage bill in the league) and in Mourinho himself (the second highest paid coach in Serie A) would offer consistent football in the Champions League. That, in turn, would boost revenues, both in terms of prize money and commercial deals. Instead, they finished sixth in their first two seasons, won the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2021-22 and reached the Europa League final the following year.
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Roma are now ninth in Serie A, five points behind fourth place. They are out of the Coppa Italia (they lost the derby to Lazio, which never helps) and have won just one of five games since Christmas, a comeback against Serie B side Cremonese in the Coppa Italia.
To save this campaign, Roma needs to qualify for the Champions League. They can do it by winning the Europa League (it's not easy: the bookmakers have them as sixth favorites, at 16-1) or by closing the five-point gap with fourth place (and, given the new Champions League format, fifth place could even win the Europa League). Be enough.)
Maybe Mourinho could have pulled it off, but that would have presented a different problem. Given that his contract was expiring and they were not going to discuss a new one until the end of the season, it would have meant negotiating a new deal with Mourinho enjoying the full leverage of Champions League qualification. And that would have meant an even more onerous contract (both in terms of salary and power for the manager) or Mourinho going elsewhere, leaving him with no compensation and an angry fan base.
So, it's best to play with the percentages and make a clean break. Club legend Daniele De Rossi steps in as interim substitute and, given his relationship with the fans, it could be assumed that he will get their support. For all the criticism that Mourinho's results-oriented and far from easy-on-the-eye style of play has generated, they are actually fourth on expected goal difference and have a fairly manageable run of games ahead of them: Verona and Cagliari at home. , Salernitana away. So the task facing De Rossi is difficult, but not impossible.
What legacy does Mourinho leave behind?
Here, you can choose according to whether you like it. She reached two European finals, winning one of them. True, but his average of 1.61 points per game in Serie A is the lowest of any Roma coach in the last 39 years. And he was on track to finish three consecutive seasons outside the league's top five, the club's worst streak in three years.
Roma may have spent a lot to support Mourinho in his first season, but in later windows the club transferred many players, leaving a positive net spend of €130 million. True, but that's because they violated FFP and had to balance the books, remember? And even then, he opted for the club to send younger players who could command a transfer fee (Cengiz Ünder, Pau López, Nicolò Zaniolo, Felix Afena-Gyan, Roger Ibañez, Justin Kluivert) to replace them with veterans at the top level. salaries, which is why the wage bill was so high: (Romelu Lukaku, Renato Sanches, Leandro Paredes, Paulo Dybala, Nemanja Matic, Gini Wijnaldum, Andrea Belotti.)
Roma's sporting director, Mourinho's compatriot Tiago Pinto, generally helped him execute that transfer strategy, as did his agent, Jorge Mendes, who was involved in several of the club's deals. Mourinho knew what he was getting into, what the financial constraints would be and what the budgets would be, and he was fine, as long as he could dictate the transfer strategy, which he did, with help. of his trusted friends.
Mourinho's charisma and experience are what persuaded guys like Lukaku and Dybala, stars who would never have otherwise joined Roma, to sign for the club. Mourinho's pedigree certainly played a part, but one imagines the club's willingness to honor their huge contracts and the fact that no one was knocking on their door when they became available had a lot to do with it. And by the way, Lukaku is on loan, so who knows if he'll be back next year, and Dybala has missed almost half of the club's games due to injury.
Mourinho galvanized the Roma fan base, was loved by his players and was a breath of fresh air, especially when he spoke truth to power. The fans who attended the game certainly adored him and he attracted eyeballs that can be monetized as sponsorship money. But in terms of being blunt, well, he was also ejected seven times in two and a half seasons, which is objectively difficult to do. And I'm not sure that antics like we saw in the Europa League final and its aftermath are necessarily what sponsors want.
He played intense and brave football and remains a tactical genius. He filled his team with holding midfielders and, this season, his attacking strategy was to defend deep and play the ball to Lukaku or give it to Dybala and hope they create something out of nothing. So yes. Two sides of each coin. And how potential employers view the above will likely inform where he appears next. There is no escaping the fact that he was sacked before the end of the season by his last five clubs: Real Madrid, Chelsea (in his two spells in charge), Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and now Roma.
There is also the fact that his approach is not in sync with that of most top European coaches. It's not just that he is perceived as reactive and defensive in his style of play (which is true to some extent, although perhaps exaggerated), it is the way in which he draws attention in public to his opponents, referees, his own players and their own employers. At a time when players like Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti are going out of their way to defend their club owners, Mourinho will have no qualms about, say, discussing his contract in public or bemoaning the lack of spending to support them. him. Owners do not like to be questioned, directly or indirectly, by the person whose salary they pay.
Then there is the perception that the fierce loyalty he engendered in his players might not be exactly what it was. Matic, once loyal to Mourinho, had a bad falling out with him at Roma. He questioned the pain threshold of the injured Chris Smalling. And of course, he criticized his reserve players after the 6-1 loss to Bodo/Glimt, when he said that “he only had 13 players in his squad… the others are on another level.”
All of the above is likely to scare away top-flight clubs. Maybe not permanently, maybe not those who are willing to roll the dice, spend some money and prepare for what will likely be an exciting, but expensive, rollercoaster ride.
