Jose Mourinho, Paulo Dyabala, Georginio Wijnaldum: Something remarkable is brewing at Roma ahead of new season

There are certain cities in the world where you can just feel the football emanating out; cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul and Glasgow all spring instantly to mind. And Rome is definitely one of them. Ad Despite being a city that has just five league titles between the two major clubs (Turin has 43, Milan 38 and even Genoa 10) there is a passion that has few equals in the world.

Premier League'The same target' — Conte says Spurs and Roma are battling superclubs29/07/2022 AT 12:50 And so far this summer it feels as if there is something special being brewed in the red and gold half of Rome as Jose Mourinho, backed by Tiago Pinto and the Roma owners, plots his greatest second season act yet. The Portuguese’s move to Roma last summer came out of nowhere and truly stunned the footballing world. After burning out (rather dramatically) at both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur there were many who speculated this might have been the end for Mourinho.

He was unlikely to get another job in England given his needling against Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal and the same prickling appeared to preclude him from a job at Juventus or AC Milan. Bayern Munich had publicly moved to distance themselves from him and, whilst it appeared a possible option, PSG put their faith in the since-fired Mauricio Pochettino. Then in came Roma.

Trying to recover from the disastrous Monchi-led era on the pitch whilst also moving on from James Pallotta’s eventful regime off it, Pinto, one of the rising stars of the world of football front offices, worked his magic to convince Mourinho of the Roma project. Mourinho in turn worked his magic, luring Tammy Abraham from Chelsea amongst others. What followed was a truly remarkable first