All the times Mourinho was bitterly critical of Roma players

Jose Mourinho couldn’t help but insult Roma players one more time as he became coach of Fenerbahce, having continually downplayed their potential for almost three years.

The self-appointed Special One was sacked by the Giallorossi in mid-January and replaced by Daniele De Rossi, immediately sparking a sea change in the attitude towards the squad.

He declared that there was a lot of talent in this team, which ought to be winning big games and fighting for the later stages of the Europa League rather than treating every test as if they were minnows.

During his presentation press conference as the new coach of Fenerbahce, Mourinho had to stick the knife in one more time, assuring he had “zero interest” in any of the Roma players.

It shouldn’t have been surprising, seeing as he spent most of the last three years criticising them, all of which naturally helped to create the idea he was their saviour by achieving the miracle of good results with this ragtag bunch of no-hopers.

“We are challenging for the top four, which is frankly not plausible,” he claimed just days before he was fired.

“Roma fans are incredible, the coach is called Jose Harry Potter Mourinho and that raises expectations.”

It is probably only a matter of time before Mourinho starts doing the same thing with Fenerbahce, so their fans should be prepared.

Mourinho rarely had a kind word about Roma players

“This is a medium level squad, so we are mid-table, where we belong. We made a lot of mistakes today, it wasn’t a tactical issue, it was all individual errors,” said Mourinho in January 2022.

“We are the only club who do not have a squad to be in the position we are, but we are in the Europa League semi-final, we also played two extra games for the play-offs, and we do not have the potential to do that,” he said in May 2023.

“There is one Roma with Paulo Dybala and another Roma without him,” noted Mourinho several times.

“Without Paulo, there is no quality in this squad. Without Romelu, there is no physicality in this squad. Without either of them, I knew it would be tough for us.”

Again and again, Mou punched down at the players who make up the majority if his squad and did nothing for their confidence.

“If I could always play with the same XI, then I would. It’s risky, because we have a huge gap in quality between the two groups of players,” he said in October 2021.

“I thought for a moment at the end that Bryan Cristante had hurt himself, I was distraught. I have to imagine my colleague Simone Inzaghi doesn’t have that reaction when he sees one of his players get injured. Unfortunately, for us any tiny problem is a disaster,” he said in October 2023.

“I was up there, looked down and the five players who were warming up were all kids from the youth academy. This is tough and something of a new experience in my career.”

Following a Europa League game in November 2023, the Portuguese coach reiterated that he could not see beyond the starting XI at Roma.

“Nobody will pay for it. Pep Guardiola can do that, if he’s not happy with one, he says goodbye, kicks him out and picks someone else. I cannot do that here.

There are players who once again missed an opportunity to prove themselves, for example Aouar.”

His favourite tactic was pointing to the strength in depth at other clubs, as if to position Roma as a weak team with no options.

“I was watching Juve today, when Bremer got hurt and Allegri introduced Rugani, I thought you are lucky, Max. We do not have Smalling or Llorente for Thursday. Renato Sanches is missed too, but we must wait and make do with what we’ve got.”

All this is of course ignoring the time he said Rick Karsdorp had “betrayed” the team with his attitude coming off the bench.