Why Roma loved and fired Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has been enormously popular at Roma. His Serie A form had been less than ideal, but he had brought the club a European trophy. Yet his sacking in January 2024, amongst Roma fans came as a surprise.

To the outside world, a Mourinho sacking is part of the Portuguese’s legacy. But that wasn’t expected to happen at Roma.

How had he formed such a bond? And why was he dismissed in the end?

Written by James Horncastle. Illustrated by Marco Bevilacqua.

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#SerieA #Roma #ASRoma

[PerfectOxygen]

Roma just took the saying "If you love someone, let them go" too seriously

[narayananmmenon]

He would do well for the national teams. It’s suits his mentality

[MALITH]

Problem with Mou is he is always brought when a Club is at a pickle. So he wins them a trophy, but after that the problems resurface again. So he becomes the obvious scapegoat.

[avikchatterjee]

Yes it was an iffy season but don't take the 9th place out of context, Roma were 5 points off top 4 when Mou was let go.

[crisch]

As a Roma fan I have to say that I will forever support this man. Just pure love for football no matter his playstyle

[alexanderivanov]

Roma were indeed a penalty kick away from Winn the Europa League but Anthony Taylor and his VAR assistants didn't give it

[leobestbote]

It's called the Jose Mourinho paradox

[gajogrande]

A couple of weeks before they were 9th, they were 4th. In an extremely competitive league. It kinda looks like someone was finding the correct timing for something previously decided.

[aaronkeane]

Can’t see lukaku and Dybala being in a Roma jersey next season. When Abraham comes back he’ll likely want to jump ship as well. The high profile loans will stop flowing in and the still important ageing players like stalling will want out too. No money, relying on a managers reputation to sign free transfers and loans I can see this going very bad for them

[samwiseshanti]

I will say, in years and years time, when we look back on his time as a manager and compare him to others around him, we will all say that he was kicked about quite a lot by the game. You think of the big names he went toe to toe with, Fergeson, Wenger, Pep, all managers whose reigns were notable for either a) someone taking a chance on a newcomer because they were talented, b) them going through a bad spell and being given a lot of time and trust and patience, or c) both, and Mourinho never really got that. He had to win the Champions League with Porto for anyone to even notice him.

He learned his trade at Barca, who seemingly never believed in him. He is certainly Chelsea's all time greatest manager, and he came back to the club when they needed him, and they dumped him twice without much thought. He got treated as a hostile force at Real Madrid, and the fans baulked at his audacity for thinking he should be allowed to pick his team, and decide how they play. He won things there too, against Pep Guardiola's Barcelona mind you, and he got chucked out anyway and they were glad to see the back of him. At Man U he was treated as a joke, no more so than when he said that getting to 2nd with them was one of his greatest ever performances as a manager, which, in hindsight, it actually might have been, and they asked him not to slam the door on the way out. We talk about him being combative or his 'us against the world' mentality, but I wonder how different things could have been if 1 of those teams had put their foot down and decided to stick with him.

[adityatiwary]

Mourinho has proved he's still a great tournament manager but not a league one anymore. He should manage a national team now.

[TheLion]

The fact that the transfer situation made such a big deal within the Roma hierarchy makes the Anthony Taylor controversy even more important. Referees NEED to be held accountable, just as any other person in the World who has a job is. People don't look at the evidence and only go with their bias. The replay even after all these years is still available for people to see. It was a clear robbery. Roma had the match won. Taylor made in incredibly horrible decision and cost Roma the match. Jose had every right to do what he did.

Rather than admit his faults, Taylor complained like a coward. The person who was wronged was eventually sacked.

[dude]

I think its about time we see a vid about xabi alonso’s leverkusen this season,
.
They are absolutely out of this world and deserve credit for the work they have done

[isaacfrost]

The Dyche Love Island bit is brilliant. Most comments are talking about Mourinho which is good, I'm just surprised no-one mentioned it.

[astricyoutube]

im a roma fan and literally was crying that day

[unusualart]

Well not enough emphasis is placed upon injuries. Since the half way mark of the last season whem Dybala was injured against Verona many players had been in and out including Dybala who could only play 45 to 60 minutes . Pellegrini has lost time as well, Aouar, Renato and many more . Who can build a competitive side whose only available players week in week out were Mancini, Llorente,Bove, Cristante and 1 or 2 more?

[nananou]

You need to talk about how they sold Ibanez without giving any thought to what Jose wanted. Ibanez was the first choice cb and the standin captain last season

[samson]

The Europa League loss was the first nail in the coffin. How different things would be had we won that trophy and qualified for the Champions League.

While I had my issues with Jose, I loved him! He gave us something we never experienced.

It's so heartbreaking and draining to be a Roma fan but I wouldn't change it for the world.

[shkafity]

Roma had the 17th lowest spend in serie a. Shouldve been backed more and atleast have had given the europa league campaign where he couldve done something

[seedheechhaatee]

Portugal will have Mourinho, Klopp with Germany and Guardiola with Spain for the next world cup. It would historically beautiful.