Mourinho brings AS Roma back to its former glory. Can he and Lukaku break into the top four this season?

José Mourinho has clearly transformed AS Roma since his arrival, bringing in some very interesting names. However, this is not evident in the results, as even though he has managed to break into the European Cups in both seasons, the top four has eluded him. Will the arrival of Romelu Lukaku help that now?

In both seasons with AS Roma, Mourinho reached 63 points in Serie A, which was enough to finish 6th each time. But the Italian capital certainly promised more. On the other hand, it must be added that he certainly doesn’t spend as much as would be appropriate to the aforementioned goal.

Since Mourinho’s return to Italy, Juventus (€322 million), AC Milan (€263 million), Atalanta (€236 million), Napoli (€206 million), Inter (€177 million), Sassuolo (€155 million), Fiorentina (€146 million) and only in 8th place we find AS Roma (€146 million).

Meanwhile, Mourinho is the 5th highest spending coach in history, having cost €1.12 billion in transfers to date. Only, under his leadership, AS even made a profit, having sold players for 164 million euros, so it is in the black by 18 million euros.

Meanwhile, in the previous three seasons before Mourinho’s arrival, AS Roma had spent €356m, with only two Italian clubs – Juventus (€656m) and Inter (€416m) – having spent more

From the above figures, it is clear that Italian football has been hit really hard by the crisis, which can be seen in recent years. However, AS Rome even more than the competition.

Even so, Mourinho has managed to bring very interesting names to the Italian capital. The latest big signing is Romelu Lukaku, who came on loan from Chelsea. Against AC Milan, he got his first minutes on the pitch right away, but all he got was a yellow card.

However, he can be counted on to help the team a lot. He has been doing well in Serie A in recent years, scoring 57 goals in 98 league games. Mourinho also has Paul Dybala, Tammy Abraham, Sardar Azmoun and Andrea Belotti at his disposal. So there is definitely plenty to choose from.

AS Roma is definitely not short of quality and experienced players, the question is whether they can transfer that to the league table. So far, after three league rounds, Mourinho’s bunch is in 14th place with just one point.

So, the start of this season is poor compared to the last two seasons when Mourinho got 9 and 7 points respectively in the opening three rounds (due to the 1-1 draw with Juventus). However, the season is only at the beginning and the evaluation will be made at the end of the season. So far, the Portuguese coach has plenty of time, so let’s see if he will exceed the 63 points this time.

Source: AS Roma, Transfermarkt