Jose Mourinho criticises Roma for forcing him to be ‘more than a coach’ and sacking him after two European Finals, but does ‘not regret’ turning down Portugal.
The Special One was sacked by the Giallorossi in mid-January, much to his visible chagrin after weeks of declaring he wanted to extend his contract, which was due to expire on June 30 anyway.
The team has gone from strength to strength since replacement Daniele De Rossi took charge, while Mou has been linked with numerous roles, above all in Saudi Arabia and the Premier League.
“I’m ready to start, and sometimes when you end at a club, you feel the need of a rest, of a think, to process things. In this case, one day after I left, I was ready to go,” Mourinho told Fabrizio Romano.
“I feel strong, I feel good, I love the work. I’m really ready, but I don’t want to make the wrong choice. I cannot accept something just because of the feeling and pressure to be back. I need to be patient.
“Normally, it is very, very difficult to start in March or April, so my objective is to start in the summer.”
The Portuguese coach won the Conference League with Roma in 2022, then reached the Europa League Final in 2023, so feels that should’ve insulated him from dismissal.
“It looked like this didn’t happen, because when people speak about me normally, they are more focused on what happened 15, 8, 20 years ago.
“There are so many great coaches in Europe and normally the great coaches are coaching the best teams with more possibilities of getting into Finals. In the last years I got to three Finals, one with Manchester United and two with Roma.
SOURCE – Mourinho: ‘I was more than a coach at Roma’ (football-italia.net)
