Roma boss confronted a critical journalist during a heated press conference
Photo by Fabio Rossi/AS Roma via Getty Images © Getty Images
Jose Mourinho certainly wasn’t in the mood to take any guff at a Saturday press conference when he came face-to-face with a journalist who had been a constant critic of the Roma boss on Italian radio – saying that the reporter ‘s*** himself‘ when given the opportunity to ask a question.
Mourinho’s return to Italian football hasn’t quite been the roaring success that Roma fans had hoped for when he joined the club less than a month after being ushered out of Premier League side Tottenham, with the club currently on the periphery of European qualification – though they do have a game in hand over city rivals Lazio and could move up to fifth position in the Serie A table with a win away to Sampdoria on Sunday.
Mourinho, though, remains one of football’s more controversial characters and the silver-tongued Portuguese again showed that he is more than willing to engage in a stand-off with reporters if he doesn’t appreciate what they have been saying about him and his team in the press.
"Ti cachi un poquito davanti a me". Dodici sono stati gli Dei di Roma, #Mourinho è il tredicesimo.#AsRoma#Austinipic.twitter.com/K3AEHoAoO6
— enneatipogiulia (@EnneatipoGiulia) April 2, 2022
Journalist Alessandro Austini is one such figure who has been a prominent critic of Mourinho on Italian radio but when given his opportunity on the microphone on Saturday, Austini opted to avoid any criticism – prompting a furious response from Mourinho.
“I was expecting a much more aggressive question, more negative and violent after I listened to you on the radio,“ Mourinho said after Austini probed him on his tactics, via translation.
“I didn’t expect such an easy question. My conclusion is that you are much more aggressive and violent on the radio but when you come here you s*** yourself a little bit in front of me.“
Mourinho’s first season in the Italian capital has blown hot and cold. March’s 3-0 thumping of Lazio was a high point in their campaign but their season has been dogged by poor defensive displays – a surprise given Mourinho’s reputation as one of football’s best defensive coaches.
A Coppa Italia quarter-final defeat to reigning Italian champions Inter Milan could be forgiven but an uncharacteristic 6-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League represented a career low point for Mourinho – even if his team did ultimately escape the group. They will face the Norwegian side once again in the quarter-finals.
Mourinho has also previously hit out at another Italian journalist, Marco Juric, claiming that the standard of his questions showed that he was “not intelligent at all.“
