Whisper it, but some believe José Mourinho’s side could challenge in Serie A after astute recruitment and a fine startAtalanta were the big winners on transfer deadline day in Italy. Not for any last-minute wheeling and dealing but because, well, they won. They had hoped to balance the books by offloading Jérémie Boga to Leicester and Hans Hateboer to Villarreal but, after both deals collapsed, they had to settle for thumping Torino 3-1 and going joint top of Serie A.It is the team alongside them in first, however, who might have enjoyed the best summer window overall. Roma landed Paulo Dybala, Andrea Belotti, Georginio Wijnaldum, Zeki Celik, Nemanja Matic and Mady Camara, while spending less than €10m on transfer fees....
Draw at Napoli was yet more evidence that the manager’s bond with his players has improved results immeasurablyAs the curtain came down on Napoli’s 1-1 draw with Roma, Lorenzo Insigne turned and booted a water bottle back toward his bench. His body language spoke less of rage than resignation. The player’s hopes of leaving his boyhood club with a Serie A title as a parting gift had already dimmed with defeat to Fiorentina in the previous round.Still, this was a day that could have belonged to him. Insigne’s well-taken penalty put Napoli ahead for 80 minutes. A win would at least have kept them in touching distance of the summit. Instead, someone else had taken hold of the narrative. Not...
The forward is flourishing under José Mourinho and scored the earliest ever Serie A Rome derby goal against Lazio on SundayThe way Tammy Abraham tells it, his decision to join Roma came down to a desire to enjoy a little more vitamin D. He has recounted many times the story of how José Mourinho opened his sales pitch last summer with a simple question: “Do you want to enjoy some sun or stay in the rain?”Yet the real question was a more profound one: was Abraham ready to give up the familiarity and comfort of England for a chance to make his name somewhere different. He had scored goals at Chelsea – 30 in all competitions across the preceding two...
Roma manager is perhaps the last of the personality coaches, his capacity to inspire by charismatic authority now fading fastAfter his Roma side had lost 1-0 at Bologna, José Mourinho pursued the referee Luca Pairetto down the tunnel, enraged at the bookings that meant Tammy Abraham and Rick Karsdorp would be suspended for last weekend’s game against Internazionale. “I’ll have to invent the lineup on Saturday,” he later told the media. “Luckily, I replaced Gianluca Mancini. Otherwise, he may have been booked too.”With his captain Lorenzo Pellegrini out with a muscular problem and Stephan El Shaarawy suffering a calf problem, Mourinho had to field a weakened lineup against Inter – and nobody could be in any doubt that that was...
Roma’s first-half collapse left their manager sniping at the media while Atalanta and Napoli showed the joys of footballJosé Mourinho cancelled his press conference before Roma’s match against Inter on Saturday, denying us a window into his emotions as he prepared to face his former club in Serie A for the first time. Eleven years had passed since he left the Nerazzurri in floods of tears, hugging Marco Materazzi before disappearing into a Madrid night after completing an unprecedented Treble win.He skipped the celebrations in Milan – fearing he could get caught up in a moment and make a commitment that he would regret. Real Madrid were ready to hire him and Mourinho now had his eyes on a different...