OFFICIAL: Jose Mourinho sacked by Roma

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 16 Jan 2024 09:09 GMT
• 3 min read

AS Roma have announced that they have sacked manager Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho's position had been precarious after a dismal run of form, which has seen Roma drop to ninth in the Serie A table.

Roma have picked up just one win from their last six Serie A games, and they were also eliminated from the Coppa Italia last week by city rivals Lazio.

“We would like to thank José on behalf of all of us at AS Roma for his passion and efforts since his arrival at the club,” a statement from Roma on Tuesday read on their official website.

“We will always have great memories of his tenure at Roma, but we believe that an immediate change is in the best interests of the club.

“We wish José and his assistants all the best in their future endeavours.”

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Mourinho sacked

In the early weeks of the campaign, Mourinho had been under heavy pressure after overseeing the worst start to a season of his career - as well as as Roma’s worst start in the three-points-for-a-win era in Serie A.

The Giallorossi won only two of their opening seven Serie A matches and fell as low as 13th in the table.

Mourinho had appeared to have steadied the ship after that but this bad run of form in December and January has proved to be costly for him.

His payoff will not be particularly high as his contract was expiring at the end of the season.

Roma's owners are unhappy that a club with the third highest wage bill in Serie A are underperforming as badly as they are.

The Giallorossi boast the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini but Mourinho has struggled to get them playing together.

Mourinho has had a mixed time at Roma since arriving in the summer of 2021.

He led the club to historic back-to-back European finals, winning the UEFA Conference League in 2022 and being runners-up on penalties to Sevilla in the Europa League in 2023.

However, in Serie A, Roma have been very disappointing. They finished sixth both in 2021-22 and 2022-23, failing to qualify for the Champions League.

They are even further off the pace this season past the halfway stage.

Despite these Serie A struggles, Mourinho has always been very popular with Roma's fans.

Daniele De Rossi is considered the early favourite to replace Mourinho as manager, possibly as caretaker until the end of the season.