Well bugger me sideways. Jose Mourinho is back in a job.
Seriously, straight back in a job. It’s amazing. Just two weeks ago he was labelled a dinosaur, past it, dried up, and told both he and his playing style were backwards and outdated. He was deemed, in short, a relic who was totally unfit for the modern game.
And now he’s back.
Serie A side Roma have absolutely leapt at the chance to hire Jose. Leapt at it. No sooner was he dodging Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy’s door than the Roma bosses were on the phone to him and informing current manager (Paulo Fonseca) that his services would no longer be required. Once again, the cat that is Jose Mourinho has landed on its feet.
In other news, I think I’ve gone soft on Mourinho. I used to be unable to stand the man (because he’s a bit of a twat) but since watching the All or Nothing documentary about the season of his arrival at Spurs I’ve started to kind of like him. A twat he may be, but he’s a funny one.
Back to the football, though. Roma is a very different challenge to what Jose usually takes on. They have had little recent success and an exceedingly dodgy squad split between the ancient (Edin Dzeko, 36), the rubbish (Chris Smalling), and the young and untried. Oh, and they have no money to speak of. The only thing he really has going for him, actually, is that the owner isn’t trying to delude himself that success will be immediate – little is expected from Jose in season one.
This is not, mind you, Mourinho’s first rodeo in Italy. A decade ago, while the manager of Inter Milan, he won the Scudetto (Italian league title) twice, and the Champions League. Hell, the stars seem to be aligning on that front. Antonio Conte, the man who replaced him after he was sacked by Chelsea for the second time, just led Inter to their first title since Mourinho’s time there. Jose will be damned determined to get the better of him.
So, yeah. This will go either really well, or really badly. I’m feeling optimistic, so I’ll plump for well. Up Jose!
