Mourinho and 'Impossible' Mission at Roma

Jenny Lee August 07, 2022 | 21:06

The fact that Roma recruited a series of rookies helped Jose Mourinho relive the old dream like with Inter Milan in any year.

Roma's massive transfer summer 2022

Roma are having an impressive summer transfer window without spending too much money.

Earlier in the summer, Jose Mourinho had intended to complain when Roma were almost immobile in the market. Despite last season's success, which culminated in the Europa Conference League win, Roma's budget is close to zero after falling short of qualifying for the Champions League.

In that context, the Friedkin family comforted Mourinho on the one hand, and sought to solve the problem on the other. Obviously, Roma cannot head into the new season with big goals without adding any positions. Their squad is much weaker than Juventus, Inter and Milan. Even if Mourinho proves he is still the "Special One" in Serie A, the gap between the squad between Roma and the big boys is still too far.

Unable to race for money, Roma tried to go in another direction. They look for contracts that are cheap, free, and even with low bonuses. The efforts of the Roma leadership paid off when they successfully recruited 5 new players for a total of … 7 million euros. In fact, the entire cost was spent by Giallorossi to recruit Lille right-back Zeki Celik. The remaining names including Mile Svilar, Nemanja Matic, Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum all landed at Olympico for zero.

The names mentioned above will increase Roma's salary by about 29.5 million euros next year. To create space for new recruits, Roma said goodbye to Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Sergio Oliveira, Davide Santon, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Alessandro Florenzi, Robin Olsen, Jordan Veretout, Daniel Fuzato and Bryan Reynolds.

The departure of a series of these stars helped Roma cut 32 million euros in salary bills. That means that Roma's salary fund is currently lower than last season, but their squad is stronger and more fighting.

Roma do not want to stop the transfer

The Roma leadership is working at full capacity to streamline the squad. They are looking to get rid of unplanned names like Justin Kluivert, Gonzalo Villar, Amadou Diawara, Carles Perez and Eldor Shomurodov, thereby saving an additional 16.5 million euros. That amount is enough to help Roma recruit striker Andrea Belotti and a classy defender.

Bringing Mourinho back to his old dream

At first glance, the grave will think that Roma is panic buying and selling, swindling shrimp in difficult times. Most of their rookies are out of time or have fallen into disrepair. Celik was once a defender sought after by the whole of Europe when he helped Lille win Ligue 1, but was no longer noticed when the French club plunged last season.

Dybala was also described as the "new Maradona" at Juventus until he was knocked down by COVID-19 and injuries. The Argentine striker came to Roma with the mentality of an outcast. He originally reached an agreement to renew with Juventus at the end of last year, but was eventually overturned by this club because he demanded too high a salary.

Wijnaldum was invited by many red carpet giants when he left Liverpool and came to PSG as a Champions League champion. However, he couldn't even squeeze into the PSG squad. Even when this club changed the coach, Wijnaldum was mercilessly pushed away. Meanwhile, Nemanja Matic is considered obsolete at the age of 34, and Mile Svilar is simply a reserve goalkeeper.

The graves are right to judge Roma's rookies from that perspective. But in the end, it is Mourinho's perspective that matters most. The Portuguese coach is reliving the feeling 13 years ago, when he was also given by Inter Milan to a series of underrated or old rookies such as Sneijder, Thiago Motta, Lucio, Milito or Eto'o. The outcome is known to everyone. Inter became the first and only Italian team to this point to win the historic treble.

Of course, Roma cannot dream that far, but reaching the top 4 of Serie A and winning the Europa League is within their reach.