Club legend Daniele De Rossi proving Roma were right to sack 'finished' Jose Mourinho

Roma’s appointment of Mourinho as manager in the summer of 2021 was, as Walter Sabatini put it, “an emotional earthquake”, one that shook the club to its very core. His dismissal was arguably even more tumultuous.

Roma’s form had been rotten. Just two days beforehand, they had slumped to a 3-1 loss to AC Milan at San Siro that left the Giallorossi ninth in the Serie A standings with just 27 points - their lowest haul after 20 rounds for more than two decades. “We can’t go any lower,” striker Andrea Belotti admitted.

The news of his sacking still came as a surprise, though - and particularly to Mourinho, who was informed of the decision at an impromptu meeting with his employers at Trigoria that lasted just 25 minutes.

As he left the club’s training centre, Mourinho was visibly shaken, seemingly in a state of disbelief at what had just happened - and, perhaps more importantly, how it had happened. He wasn’t the only one who felt that the situation had been handled poorly either.

"It seems to be that these American owners have a strange way of handling things, with no respect for those who work for them,” coaching icon Fabio Capello told Sky Sport Italia. “There is no sensitivity; there is just business. They are the owners, and they decide, but I believe in something more, in a certain sense of respect for those working with you, saying goodbye in a different way.”

He added: “It was clear that they weren’t on the same page. Mourinho had had some requests but received no answers, and this was already a signal that things were not working. But I feel Mourinho was treated like somebody who had never coached a team, in a very disrespectful way for a coach who has given a lot to world football, not only European. It’s an attitude that is unconvincing and that I cannot accept."

Mourinho struggled to come to terms with the decision himself. A month after his “unexpected and unfair dismissal”, he told Football.com: “The European competitions are about to begin, in particular the Champions League, perhaps the most important competition on the world calendar. I won’t be there at these final stages, not because I’ve already been eliminated, but because I was ‘eliminated’ by someone who knows little about football.”

Unfortunately for Mourinho, while his sacking may have been ruthless, it was unquestionably the correct call.

Winning the Conference League at the end of his first year in charge and reaching the final of the Europa League the following season were unquestionably outstanding achievements. However, he was hired to get Roma back into the Champions League - an absolute imperative for a club in such a fragile financial state - and he’d already twice failed to realise that goal. There was absolutely no evidence during the first half of the current campaign to suggest that it would be a case of third time lucky.

The team’s play was as poor as their points haul and the whole atmosphere at the club had turned toxic. Mourinho was the main reason why, as he did little else but criticise and complain. He had some legitimate claims over the lack of investment in his squad - but it was clear that he just wasn’t getting the best out of the players at his disposal.

Worse still, he effectively brought the club into disrepute by constantly lashing out at referees and opponents. His contemptible conduct had become a major concern to the club's owners long before the shocking scenes we witnessed after the Europa League final loss to Sevilla in Budapest and, truth be told, if The Friedkin Group made one mistake, it was not sacking Mourinho after he shamefully scapegoated Anthony Taylor and his fellow officials in the carpark below at the Puskas Arena.

However, Dan and Ryan Friedkin deserve a lot of credit for eventually coming to the conclusion that Mourinho had to go before it was too late - and even more for entrusting the unproven De Rossi with the responsibility of salvaging the season.

The former Italy international may have been one of the finest defensive midfielders of his generation - and a club legend - but his coaching experience was limited. He had been part of Roberto Mancini’s backroom team during their Euro 2020 triumph, but he had been sacked just four months into his first job as a head coach, at SPAL, whom he left languishing in 18th place in Serie B. Hardly surprising, then, that Roma were only willing to give him a contract until the end of the season.

However, De Rossi’s deal has already been extended, with the 40-year-old having overseen a remarkable transformation that has seen the Giallorossi rise from ninth in the table to fifth, and reach the semi-finals of the Europa League, taking out Feyenoord, Brighton and AC Milan along the way.

A tactical shift has played a part in Roma's revival, which means qualification for next season's Champions League is now there for the taking. De Rossi sometimes switches back to Mourinho’s defensively minded 3-5-2 formation, particularly during periods of difficulty, but, for the most part, he employs a far more adventurous 4-3-3 formation that rather sums up the general change in approach that has seen negativity give way to positivity.

From his very first press conference, De Rossi made it clear that he had the utmost faith in Roma’s players, some of whom he’d played alongside during his final season at the Olimpico, in 2018-19. The contrast with Mourinho could not have been starker. The two-time Champions League winner repeatedly lamented the supposed lack of quality at the club and also questioned the character of several members of his squad.

De Rossi, though, focused on reminding his players “that they must never stop believing or acknowledging how strong they are”, and when asked why Mourinho felt some of his key men went missing in away games, he replied, “You should ask him what he noticed and why he saw fear in the players’ eyes. I can only evaluate what I see, and I see players with personality. I think I have great players, and I don’t think my players lack personality. Not at all.”

Unsurprisingly, those players have responded to De Rossi’s more supportive man-management and far more offensive tactics. As former Roma attacker Antonio Cassano told La Domenica Sportiva, “As a coach, Mourinho is now completely finished. He is not capable of coaching anymore, he is still doing the same things as 10 years ago. He wouldn’t play [Leandro] Paredes and preferred [Edoardo] Bove to [Lorenzo] Pellegrini. De Rossi gave Roma the belief that this is a strong team, he’s doing an extraordinary job. He was always destined for this.”

While Cassano’s caustic comments shouldn’t always be taken too seriously, and particularly in this instance given he’s been locked in a long-running feud with Mourinho, Pellegrini’s performances certainly reflect horribly on the former Roma boss. There has arguably been no better attacking midfielder in Italy over the past few months, and he says himself that he is now playing with a “freedom” that was “lacking in the last year-and-a-half”.

De Rossi’s arrival was unquestionably the catalyst for Pellegrini’s purple patch. Not only did he play him in a more advanced role, he also stood firmly by his captain when he was targeted by certain sections of the fanbase who blamed him for Mourinho’s dismissal. Indeed, at the time, there were even reports that Mourinho left the ring he was given by the squad after their Conference League triumph in Pellegrini’s locker at Trigoria as he felt ‘betrayed’ by his skipper.

However, fellow midfielder Bryan Cristante has denied that Pellegrini - or any player for that matter - played a part in Roma getting rid of Mourinho, pointing out that in football “when things don’t go well, the coach is always the first one to leave, even if he’s not the only guilty party.”

What’s become abundantly clear, though, is that Mourinho had become a major problem and that De Rossi is, as Cristante says, “proving the right solution”.

“The coach didn’t need to be introduced when he arrived, but it could have been tough to join the team in a difficult moment and work with footballers he had played with,” Cristante told the Corriere dello Sport. “But he’s been managing the group well and it should not be taken for granted.”

He’s got a point. Not even the Friedkins could have imagined their bold mid-season managerial change going quite so well. Whereas Mourinho looked finished, De Rossi is starting to look like a seriously impressive coach. He's already claimed the scalps of Arne Slot and Roberto De Zerbi in the knockout stages of this season’s Europa League - Alonso could easily be next.