Jose Mourinho suggested he’s had ‘zero contacts with other clubs’ amidst doubts over his Roma future and called their Europa League final against Sevilla ‘something historic’.
The Giallorossi will face off against the Spanish outfit in the Europa League final on May 31 at the Puskas Arena in Budapest. Mourinho’s side qualified for the final after edging out a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-finals, whilst Sevilla secured a 3-2 aggregate victory over Juventus.
Mourinho guided Roma to their first ever major European honour in the Conference League last season and now is keen to repeat the triumph in the Europa League. Despite this, doubts have continued to emerge regarding his future in the Italian capital.
Speaking in a press conference, Mourinho first discussed how Roma reached the Europa League final.
“It was a long journey, different from our opponent because they come from the Champions League.
“We have played 14 games to be here and we undoubtedly deserve it. We deserve to play this final and the time is coming. In the last two three days we have been working on that.”
He commented on Sevilla’s historic dominance in the Europa League and what that means to him.
“I’d say history does not play, my fellow opponent thinks differently. They think that they’re favoured because history says so, we respect that. But we are in this final deserving it.
“For them to play a Europa League final is almost normal, for us it is an extraordinary event. For the Sevilla fans, playing in a European final is like playing in Spain, for us it is something historic.”
The Portuguese coach was asked about his future in the Italian capital.
“I think if any of us have a question similar to yours, we have to ask Midilibar because he has no contract. I spoke to my two captains and they asked me a similar question to yours. I answered them objectively.
“They don’t want me to answer, but they know what I want. It’s different from Inter because I hadn’t signed with Real Madrid, but everything was done. Now I have nothing, zero contacts with other clubs. I think about tomorrow and what we want to do, because we want to play.”
He spoke about the love that still remains for him at Real Madrid.
“I love Real Madrid very much, I love the president and the coach very much. But the coach doesn’t play, the coach works a lot before the game, during the game very little. I said to my staff: today our work is finished. Now history is made by the boys.
“My colleagues in Madrid say well that Sevilla have a great team, two great teams because they have 25 top players. They are all top professionals, they have many options. But they don’t know my guys and they don’t know my team as a team and tomorrow we will be there.”
Mourinho compared the two teams ahead of the Europa League final.
“The budget that Sevilla has is not the same as Roma. We have players who played in the B team last year. I had more opportunities to play in European competitions, but Mendilibar is of the same generation as me: we are on par.
“The players are also the same, Sevilla’s players have more experience, but we have been playing together for two years.”
He was asked what was different between Roma and Tottenham ahead of the final.
“Roma gave me the chance to play them, Tottenham didn’t.”
The Portuguese coach provided an update on star forward Paulo Dybala.
“Tomorrow for 20-30 minutes he will make it.”