‘Mourinho has never been a great coach’ – Cassano savages ex-Chelsea & Man Utd boss in Roma ‘disaster’ claim
- Portuguese boasts enviable CV
- Won trophies across Europe
- Consistency lacking at Roma
WHAT HAPPENED? The Giallorossi were victorious in their latest Serie A outing, a 2-0 win over Empoli, but suffered a humbling Coppa Italia quarter-final exit immediately prior to that when going down 2-1 at home to Cremonense. Mourinho has delivered major silverware during his time in the Italian capital, having won the inaugural Europa Conference League, but Cassano claims the Portuguese – who has previously enjoyed success at Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid and Manchester United – is not as good as his record would suggest.
WHAT THEY SAID: The ex-Italy international, who spent five productive years with Roma in his playing days, has told Christian Vieiri’s BoboTV podcast: “Mourinho has never been a great coach, he just knew how to play the media and was a great communicator. He is good at dealing with strong players, not ones who aren’t very good. It’s too easy to just be friendly with great players," He continued: "It is just a disaster upon a disaster at Roma, he got them to spend money on Nemanja Matic and Rui Patricio, they were his decisions. The other day, that performance made me want to vomit. He doesn’t know how to set out a team. Even with your second-string squad, you need to beat Cremonese.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Cassano also criticised Mourinho’s handling of senior Roma stars Rick Karsdrop and Nicolo Zaniolo, who have both been ostracised at Stadio Olimpico: “It was Mourinho’s disaster with Karsdorp, putting him in the stocks, disintegrating and insulting him in front of everyone. Now Karsdorp is coming back, who knows why? So that was one mess. As for Zaniolo, he gets to talk about that and not why his Roma team plays like cr*p. It’s been a year-and-a-half that this Roma side hasn’t played proper football.”
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WHAT NEXT? Karsdrop was informed that he had no future at Roma by Mourinho earlier in the season, while Zaniolo appears destined to sever ties with the Serie A giants after failing to agree a new contract and coming close to completing a move to England during the January transfer window.