José Mourinho he reiterates: “I want to stay.” And to those who point out to him that society’s problems can affect sporting performance, he replies: «Many people might think that it depended on something, but for me it doesn’t depend on anything. I have always been honest from the beginning.” Here is José Mourinho’s full press conference on the eve of Rome-Naples.
INSIGHTS
The world of football is divided over the Super League. What is his opinion?
«I am Roma’s coach and Roma’s position is mine too.
I won’t comment, I have a lot of experience in football and I’ve experienced it at different times but I don’t want to make any public analysis. Roma’s position is clear and I am Roma’s coach.”
What are Napoli’s values?
«They are the champions with merit, they won very clearly last year. They lost a player and took many. It’s the same team as a year ago. They have lost a very good coach, but they have one with a lot of experience in football, Serie A and Napoli. The results are different, because they didn’t even have a defeat last year. But they have the same people, the same potential, the same powerful bench with many solutions. Napoli is Napoli.”
Why did you choose to publicly communicate your intentions for the future at this time? What drives you to want to stay at Roma amid the uncertainties about the next sporting director, the difficulties and financial fair play?
«There were doubts about my position, maybe someone could think that in my head there was a doubt, that I was frustrated, that something could create doubts in me. I said my position. I have no doubts and we don’t have to talk. It’s all very clear and objective. Many people might think it depended on something, but for me it doesn’t depend on anything. I have always been honest from the beginning. When I signed with Roma, a week later I had a fantastic offer and I didn’t accept because I had a compromise with Roma. In December I had Portugal and the chance to work with the best in the world, win the European Championship. I spoke to the company and stayed. After the final in Budapest I informed the owners of the situation in Arabia. Now, my honesty ends here and I say that I would like to struggle with all difficulties. Now there’s nothing left to say, I don’t want to talk about it at all.”
Tomorrow will be the match between Lukaku and Osimhen, what are their strengths?
«They are two very strong attackers. One bends down and does link play with colleagues. The other is direct, gives more depth. They are two very good players. Serie A must be very happy to have them, they could have played for other teams in the strongest leagues in the world. What if Drogba was stronger? He was different, I never liked comparing footballers. Osimhen is the best African player, Didier was, Romelu has African parents.”
How is the recovery of the injured progressing? Could this be the match for Kumbulla?
«Kumbulla won’t even be on the bench. He’s fine, nothing bad happened. He needs rest today and tomorrow. Then he will start again next week and possibly be on the bench in the next game. Paulo is fine, but will be out tomorrow. Mancini hasn’t trained all week, he trained today for the first time but he plays tomorrow. He is one of these guys who, if he doesn’t have triple fractures in his tibia or fibula, he plays. The team needs him. Aouar’s recovery is far away. I haven’t seen Smalling on the pitch yet, he continues to evolve with the medical department. Not even individual training on the pitch. He misses a lot.”
Is it difficult to face Napoli despite the problems?
«He has problems with results, he has almost the same team as last year. Of the 11, 10 of the team that won the championship play. They have many solutions, we know the difficulties but to tell the truth when we faced Napoli the result was always on the line. We lost 1-0 in the 80th minute, we lost in the last minute without deserving it. We did well against them, despite not having the results. Let’s hope that tomorrow we will deserve less and we will have a better result.”
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