a greater Rome as a gift
Happy birthday with the nose up, admiring this incredible clear January sky above Rome beautiful, other than that London or Milan. And the feet on the pitch, in Trigoria, because there is training. You can’t ask for much better. The successes, the titles, sooner or later will return, he thinks José, but in the meantime let’s enjoy this light, which is a privilege for three or four million lucky people in the world. The first birthday in Rome is never forgotten, Mourinho today says 59, and a year ago these days he would not even have said it: he lives in Belgravia, a residential area for the overcrowded in the shadow of Buckingham Palace, but not even now he is put malaccio, at the Parioli in a Renaissance prince’s palace, overlooking Villa Borghese, on this side of the river and among the trees, in the shade of these pines. You see him often eating in Piazza Hungary, or walking around with his family, commuting between London and Rome. Next week “Zuca”, the son, also turns 22, while his daughter Matilde designs jewels that her father proudly wears and advertises, as in the locker rooms in Empoli. José loves Rome, he doesn’t ride it on a Vespa as he did in Trigoria but with the driver, sometimes on foot. Catholic as he is, he has not denied visits to St. Peter’s, where that gentleman dressed in white lives, almost as famous as he is. With the Roma fans the bond is already strong, just go to the stadium to understand it.
The pressures of the “difficult square” does not know what they are, he is not a reader of editorials, he does not listen to private broadcasters but the idea that he exists amuses him, even in Madrid it was like that, and he didn’t care there too: the players count and the presidents who buy them, not the chatter of difficult squares, and he has known this for a long time.
He is starting to like the team, but it is not going as he hoped. He struggled to direct it, he clashed with the reality of many lost games, already 10, and his career high in a year was 13. He drives a Roma from heads or tails, win or die: he drew only 3 games out 32 (the Municipality of Guardiola is so few, with very different results). His desuetude to govern a team with little personality slowed him down at the start, he shook and discovered vacant looks, he reacted with spite and maybe he messed around here and there, between modules and choices. A lower lineage coach was handled with a softer hand, but that’s all part of the José package: whether you chose an Italian or a De Zerbi, more suitable for teams to accompany, different states also perspectives. Mourinho went to the clash with the club on the players’ park, while he understood that dealing with the referees is not convenient for him at all.
He clamored for reinforcements, as Antonio Conte always does, like any money order technician. Of the purged of the autumn, he has recovered Kumbulla, the only one that can be reintegrated, and why the crazy topics of Mancini and Ibañez, which cost an enormous amount of goals, always worry him; the others, the Villars or the Mayorals, ended up in minor teams of course: none of the big players in Europe fought to get them, and it was well known.
Growing
He lacks reference players to entrust the team to, he hoped Pellegrini was but he is struck by his fragility, so here is Sergio Oliveira, to dare solidity and experience, vital things. The rest will come, between January and summer. The fourth place, if desired, is still possible, if Roma grew a lot, and the structure now seems to have it, José has worked hard. Who knows. The man now seems placid, he knows that in Rome things can slow down if you want. One day he will return to Madrid, where Florentino is always waiting for him. But not now. With this light in the sky, so many perspectives can change.
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