Antonio Cassano has again sparked controversy, as this time he launched a scathing attack on Roma boss Jose Mourinho. ‘He has never been a great coach, he just knew how to play the media.’
Former Roma star Cassano is now retired and acting as a pundit on Christian Vieri’s BoboTV podcast, where he lets loose with rants and criticism of the current Calcio headliners.
After the Giallorossi were eliminated from the Coppa Italia by Cremonese, who set up their semi-final against Fiorentina, FantAntonio blamed one man in particular.
“Mourinho has never been a great coach, he just knew how to play the media and was a great communicator. He is good at dealing with strong players, not ones who aren’t very good. It’s too easy to just be friendly with great players.
“It is just a disaster upon a disaster at Roma, he got them to spend money on Nemanja Matic and Rui Patricio, they were his decisions. Too many times, he acts all sneaky.
“The other day, that performance made me want to vomit. He doesn’t know how to set out a team. Even with your second-string squad, you need to beat Cremonese.”
Cassano conveniently forgets that this was not the first shock result of Cremonese’s Coppa Italia campaign, as they already eliminated Napoli on penalties in the Round of 16 after a 2-2 draw at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Meanwhile, Cassano also gave his verdict on the way Mourinho dealt with outcasts Rick Karsdorp and Nicolò Zaniolo.
“It was Mourinho’s disaster with Karsdorp, putting him in the stocks, disintegrating and insulting him in front of everyone. Now Karsdorp is coming back, who knows why? So that was one mess.
“As for Zaniolo, he gets to talk about that and not why his Roma team plays like c**p. It’s been a year-and-a-half that this Roma side hasn’t played proper football.”
The Giallorossi won the Europa Conference League last season, the first UEFA trophy of their entire history.
Mourinho also won the Treble at Inter in 2010, having already lifted the Champions League with underdogs FC Porto.