Mourinho reveals AS Roma project belongs to the club not him

Jose Mourinho said the owners want to ‘leave a legacy’ at Roma, pushing for the Giallorossi to be ‘successful in the future’, and stressed he’s a ‘much better’ coach than his time at Inter.

The former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United coach was brought in to replace Paulo Fonseca in the Italian capital but wanted to point out that it was not his own or the owners project, but one that should help build the foundation for future success at Roma.

“This is not the Friedkin project, it’s not the Tiago Pinto project, it’s not the Mourinho project, it’s the Roma project,” Mourinho told Serie A’s official YouTube channel.

“I know the fans, I know the square and if you think that the project is for me ‘to arrive tomorrow and I win the day after tomorrow’, it’s not the right path.

“This is a project in which the owners want to leave a legacy, they want to do something very important for the club in a very sustainable way. We want Roma to be successful in the future.”

And the Portuguese coach, who helped Inter win the Treble in 2009-10, believes he is a ‘better’ coach now than during his last stint in Serie A.

“I’m much better now, I’m serious,” Mourinho continued. “I feel improved now because this is a job where experience counts so much.

“Everything becomes a dejavù because I’ve been through so many experiences since leaving Italy. Of course, it’s one thing to come to a country for the first time, where you start from scratch, and you have so many things to learn.

“This is not my case, I know Italy, I know the culture of football. I know about Rome, which was my real rival, it was fighting with us for the domestic titles. Now I’m ready for this.”

Mourinho praised the Giallorossi fans ‘passion’ and hopes to give them something to celebrate.

“It’s truly incredible that in the last 20 years there have not been many moments to rejoice and cheer together,” he said. “But that passion has never faded.

“It’s very easy to be a great supporter of a team that continually wins. It’s another thing to be a fan in this type of situation, this means a lot to me.

“I hope the team becomes a reflection of who I am.”

Mourinho stressed he wants to create a united Roma and hopes the players at Trigoria knows that he wants ‘to give everything for the team’.

“I have always said that you can only get to know a player if you work with him,” Mourinho added. “But in reality, when you are with them on the pitch, when you look at the difficulties, when you experience the positive things, it means you begin to really know them.

“Everyone must feel that I want to give everything to the team. Everyone must be happy when we win, everyone must be sad when we lose, but everyone must be united as a team.”