ROME, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 17: AS Roma head coach Jose Mourinho seems on throughout the Serie A TIM match between AS Roma and Empoli FC at Stadio Olimpico on September 17, 2023 in Rome, Italy. (Picture by Paolo Bruno/Getty Photos)
Roma captain Lorenzo Pellegrini admits that he and his teammates have been ‘shocked’ by the membership’s resolution to half methods with Jose Mourinho this time final 12 months, and has revealed that the Giallorossi squad ‘wished him to remain’.
Mourinho was sacked by Roma on January 16, 2024, one 12 months in the past on Thursday, which is when Pellegrini sat down to offer an in-depth interview to Corriere dello Sport, revealed on Friday.
It has been a turbulent time within the Stadio Olimpico dugout since Mourinho’s departure, because the workforce are actually onto their third totally different coach because the Particular One departed. Daniele De Rossi briefly turned issues round, however was let go in September, whereas Ivan Juric’s tenure lasted only a matter of weeks.
Pellegrini: Roma gamers ‘wished’ Mourinho to remain
Requested if he knew the importance of the date on Thursday, Pellegrini advised Corriere dello Sport: “I do know, sure. It was our day without work, the sixteenth of January a 12 months in the past: They despatched Mourinho away.
“It was a shock as a result of none of us might have imagined it. It wasn’t an important second for us.”
Pellegrini admits that he and the squad have been conscious of the rumours surrounding Mourinho’s potential departure a number of weeks prior, and that some squad members went to confront then-director Tiago Pinto on the matter.
“On the finish of November we learn that they wished to do away with him. We went to Tiago Pinto to ask if it was true and we defined that there was no have to ship him away. We wished to hold on with him.”
Pinto, nonetheless, advised the squad that the rumours have been merely: “Innovations from the newspapers.”
That proved to not be the case ultimately, as Mourinho was formally dismissed on January 16.
He didn’t waste an excessive amount of time getting again into administration, as he joined Fenerbahce on the finish of the season. Fener at the moment sit in second place within the Turkish Tremendous Lig desk, eight factors off Victor Osimhen and Galatasaray on the summit.
Pellegrini went on to offer additional reward to Mourinho, and dismissed any ideas that he and the squad turned in opposition to the coach or his predecessor Daniele De Rossi.
“I had a number of the finest years of my profession with Jose. We spoke on the telephone instantly after his sacking and I wished to make clear my place with different ridiculous rumours going round. He understood. Mou is wonderful, he conjures up you.
“We advised ourselves that if he requested us to hit our heads in opposition to a tree, we’d all do it. Strategies of betraying Daniele (De Rossi) are full science fiction: Innovations from individuals who do not know concerning the relationship I had and nonetheless have with him. Typically the reality shouldn’t be of curiosity.”
