José Mourinho is trying to reset the Roma story, but the chapter is nearing its end

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“This is us, this is Roma,” said José Mourinho on Sunday before his team’s match in Milan. “You have the most incredible supporters I have ever seen in my life. And then you have a manager who, when people hear his name, think it’s José Harry Mourinho Potter, not José Félix. The level of demand and expectation is skyrocketing.”

He tried to reset the narrative after a Coppa Italia defeat to Lazio in midweek, perhaps his lowest moment since taking over the club in the summer of 2021. Roma’s league form had collapsed, with just one win in their previous five games leaving them behind in the league. racing for the Champions League places, and now they had lost the shortest route to winning a trophy. None of that mattered as much as the fact we’d dropped another derby.

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Mourinho has lost four of six derbies since arriving in Rome, with just one win. The meaning was best summed up by his counterpart’s comments. “There’s no way I could have qualified for the next round of the Coppa Italia,” says Maurizio Sarri – a man who has consistently brought that competition into disrepute. “But you have to win the derby for your people.”

These are games that could change the trajectory of a manager’s stay in the capital. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported afterwards that #mourinhoout was trending for the first time in three years on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Portuguese is overwhelmingly popular with the Roma fanbase, and his presence has been the crucial factor in a run of over 40 consecutive sell-out attendances at the Stadio Olimpico. Even now it would be wrong to conclude that the majority has turned against him. Calls for his resignation were met with an equally furious counter-campaign.

There are plenty who share Mourinho’s belief that unreasonable expectations are being placed on him. Roma operate within tight financial constraints as they work to fulfill their financial fair play obligations with UEFA. They have spent less than ten million euros on transfer fees this season, while recouping more than seventy million euros.

The story continues

But that is also an incomplete picture. Roma had a net spend of over €100 million during Mourinho’s first summer at the club. Not all that money was spent wisely. Tammy Abraham was brilliant, scoring 27 goals in his first season at the club before being derailed by a cruciate ligament injury. Eldor Shomuradov, who played only six league games for the Giallorossiwas not.

Although Roma’s spend on transfer fees has since been cut to the bone, their wage bill remains the third highest in Serie A. Before Victor Osimhen’s contract extension at Napoli this month, Romelu Lukaku was the highest-paid player in the league. Outgoing Roma general manager Tiago Pinto has done shrewd business, and signing Paulo Dybala on a free transfer in 2022 was a coup. But claims of poverty will ring hollow to their rivals.

Sunday’s opponents Milan were aggressive in the summer transfer window, adding the likes of Christian Pulisic, Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek as part of their own €120 million splurge, even if they compensated by signing Sandro Tonali to Newcastle to sell. Yet they spend around 15% less on player salaries than Roma. And Mourinho earns almost twice as much as their manager, Stefano Pioli.

You wouldn’t have known it in San Siro. Mourinho caused a surprise by sending his team on the attack from the first whistle. He adjusted his 3-5-2 to allow Leandro Paredes to play as number 10 behind Lukaku and Stephan El Shaarawy – the latter also an unexpected choice ahead of Andrea Belotti. The remaining two midfielders, Edoardo Bove and Bryan Cristante, shuttled from box to box: a marked shift from the more rigid lines used in recent games.

Yet Milan was not upset. They took the lead in the 11th minute, with Yacine Adli shifting the ball from the right boot to the left as he slid past Rasmus Kristensen and finished into the bottom corner.

Genoa 0-0 Torino, Napoli 2-1 Salernitana, Verona 2-1 Empoli, Monza 1-5 Internazionale, Lazio 1-0 Lecce, Cagliari 2-1 Bologna, Fiorentina 2-2 Udinese, Milan 3-1 Roma

Roma’s right wing-back Zeki Celik made a good save from Mike Maignan before half-time. But Olivier Giroud headed in a second for Milan early in the second half. The outcome seemed certain until an unnecessary foul from Davide Calabria gave Paredes the chance to pull a goal back from the penalty spot. But a nerve-wracking end to the match was prevented when Théo Hernández, together with Giroud on the left, kicked the ball in via the crossbar to seal the 3-1. Rossoneri to win.

That result extended an impressive personal record for Pioli, who faced Mourinho six times and never lost. No other manager can boast more than three games without defeat against the Portuguese.

It wasn’t long ago that Pioli’s own position seemed threatened. The man who led Milan to the Serie A title in 2022 has been criticized for meekly relinquishing the crown last season and falling behind Inter and Juventus this season. An early exit from the Champions League – even in a formidable group – did not help his cause.

But his team has recorded four wins and a draw in their last five league games. They remain nine points behind Inter, who have set an extraordinary pace but now have an identical cushion to Lazio in fifth place. Even that spot could be good enough to qualify for the Champions League, depending on how Italian clubs fare in the rest of this season’s European competitions.

Roma, on the other hand, has fallen to ninth place. A long list of injuries has played a role – although Milan have also struggled in that regard – but even if we accept Mourinho’s claims of fewer resources than the competition, his team are eight points short of the same point last season.

However his time in the capital ends, Mourinho will leave a lasting legacy. By guiding Roma to victory in the inaugural Europa Conference League, he gave them their first silverware for fourteen years – and their first continental trophy since the 1961 Fairs Cup. His team also went a penalty shootout away from winning the Europa League.

Yet Mourinho has so far failed to deliver on what matters most to Roma’s American ownership group: a return to the Champions League and the revenue streams that come with it. In Serie A, he has achieved consecutive sixth-place finishes – hardly an improvement on his predecessor Paulo Fonseca, who earned less than half while finishing fifth and then seventh.

There is the feeling that a chapter is ending. Pinto will leave Roma in February and Mourinho’s contract expires this summer. He announced his desire to renew at the end of last year, but there has been no move from the club to start negotiations. Some Italian media reported on Monday that change could be made sooner if results continue to rise.

Mourinho watched this latest defeat from the stands at San Siro, serving a suspension after being sent off against Atalanta earlier this month. By one journalist’s count, that is now the case 29 red cards for members of the Roma bench since he arrived. More than a magic wand, it’s tempting to wonder whether Roma could only benefit from a period of rest.