Jose Mourinho ruffled by old foe as Tottenham gripe comes to the surface
Jose Mourinho is feeling the heat in Serie A after an awful run of form by his Roma side and one possible reason for him taking his eye off the ball has been floated.
Roma have lost five of their last nine Serie A games, with the latest a rather embarrassing 3-2 reverse to struggling Venezia. The Giallorossi are 13 points behind the league leaders with just 12 games played. They also suffered a shocking 6-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League last month.
Mourinho rotated his team for the trip to the Arctic and afterwards he was far from complimentary about them.
“We have a very good team, we don’t have a very good squad,” Mourinho told Sky in Italy. “Today, we didn’t play with the team, we played with the squad, and we were punished by that.”
It’s those comments which have not gone down well with Roma’s hierarchy. And while the Portuguese manager’s future is not yet in jeopardy the recent results will have American owner Dan Friedkin concerned. Friedkin is with Mourinho but he wants to see “progress”.
Now, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, a possible explanation for Mourinho’s mood has come to light.
Mourinho has somehow been affected by Antonio Conte’s appointment at Tottenham.
Conte finally took the Spurs job at the start of November after rejecting the chance in the summer. Spurs chief Daniel Levy wanted Conte to succeed Mourinho, but instead they had to settle for Nuno Espirito Santo.
That relationship ended after four months. And Mourinho’s comments after were salty.
“He’s a good coach,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia about Conte. “But Nuno Espirito Santo is also a very good coach, who has done well for four or five years at Wolves.
“I can’t say Tottenham have a good coach now, they had one before as well. They have him now, but they already had it.”
And Gazzetta explain that those close to Mourinho say that he was “not indifferent” to Conte’s move to north London.
Both coaches have been in charge of Inter Milan, Chelsea and Tottenham during their careers. But Mourinho is understood to be irked at the Italian getting his hands on his old Tottenham squad.
The pair have never been on good terms.
Asked for a comparison between his Inter side and Conte’s at his unveiling in the summer, Mourinho said: “There are some coaches in the clubs’ history that you should never compare to others.
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Conte v Mourinho history
“For this club, don’t compare Capello or Liedholm to other coaches. For Inter, never compare others to Herrera or me, because you just can’t do that.”
Previously, while the pair were at Manchester United and Chelsea.
Mourinho was upset by Conte’s actions during Chelsea’s 4-0 victory over United in 2016. He then referred to Conte as a “clown”.
Conte responded with the Italian phrase “demenza senile” in relation to Mourinho, which translates as senile dementia. A club spokesman later confirmed Conte meant to say amnesia.
Conte also called his Blues predecessor a “little man” and “fake” after a 0-0 draw with Norwich in January 2018.
The pair looked certain to face each other again in Serie A this season when Mourinho was handed the Roma job. Conte though left Inter Milan soon after securing the Scudetto.
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