Jose Mourinho reflected on his time with Roma and how he had to be more than just a head coach at the club, suggesting it limited his abilities in the dugout.
Mourinho spent a memorable 30-month spell in the Italian capital from the summer of 2021 to January of this year, winning a Conference League title in his first season and taking his side to the Europa League final in his second.
Mourinho was a popular figure during his time with Roma but his dismissal in January was a risk that has paid off for the club, who’ve found a new lease of life under former midfielder Daniele De Rossi over the last three months. He is expected to return to management in the summer, possibly in the Premier League.
Mourinho on Roma role
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mourinho was first asked about the preconceptions surrounding him, his success in the dugout and how he deals with that.
“I am the only European coach who played two finals in the past two years. So speak about my present. I am not guilty that 20 years ago I won the Champions League.
“But if you go to 90 per cent of the coaches and ask them ‘Would you like to play two European cup finals in two consecutive years?’, most of them are going to say yes.”
Mourinho then opened up about his desire to simply be a head coach and not a larger figure at a club.
“My dream job description, because sometimes you have a job title and another thing is the job description, is ‘head coach’. That’s my dream. To be the coach. To be the guy who works with the team, focus on developing players, preparing matches.
“Fortunately, I had that in my career. Unfortunately, I had other situations when I had to be much more than that. When you are much more than that you are not as good a coach as you can be. The club puts you in a position where I don’t want to be.
“Do you think after the Europa League final that we (Roma, ed.) lost, in the circumstances that we lost, I was happy with all the emotion that I felt? Do you think I was happy to be the face of the club that went to the press conference to speak about these events? No, I hated to go.
“If people fear something, don’t fear. Give me a professional structure where I am only the head coach because this is what I am good at. People say I’m good at communication.
“Many, many times you say the wrong things. Especially when you communicate three or four times a week. A club’s structure pushes me in the wrong direction.”
Finally, Mourinho spoke about the kind of project he needs at a club.
“The only thing I want is that the targets and the objectives have to be established by everyone in a fair way. I cannot go to a club where, because of my history, the objective is to win the title. No. The only thing I want is that it has to be fair.
“Do you think if I was at a big Premier League club and we were sixth, seventh, eighth, in the table, I still have a job?
“What I am saying is people should look at me the way they look at others. What is important for me is if the club has objectives and for me to be able to say I am ready to fight for these.
“I don’t want to say realistic, but semi-realistic. Because when I went to Roma nobody was dreaming about European Cup finals and we did it. It’s not possible I go to a club almost relegated, and the objective is to win the Champions League. It’s good but it is not fair.”