Mourinho, Rome is crazier than you

The Martian has quickly understood how Rome works. Who would have thought, he has shown intelligence, even empathy. Suddenly, that annoying arrogance, very often grotesque, has been suspended in the echo of his old press conferences, always more fascinating than his proposals in the field. José Mourinho, at 58 years old, is calm, he no longer provokes opponents. He does not exaggerate, he does not load the environment during the week. It is as if the Mou de Madrid had disappeared. Or as if some adult had gotten into that body to remind that narcissistic coach that Rome is not Milan, Manchester, London or Madrid. In Rome, he has understood, you will find people much crazier than he. And as that Martian Ennio Flaiano discovered who landed in the Eternal City, it is in his best interest not to arouse his cruel cynicism.

Mourinho has won the five official matches he has played to date (this Sunday he defeated Sassuolo at the Olímpico, 2-1), his best start to the season. The team goes first, the fans are happy and Roma look solid in defense for the first time in a decade. The dressing room is with him and he has given Lorenzo Pellegrini, the last great Roman of the squad, to make him his lieutenant on the field. Arguably, things are going well. And yet his arrogant rhetoric about victory has given way to unusual caution. “The project is at least two years old. Not one ”, he repeats as if asking the fans, the club and the world for patience, which is watching him and expecting great results. "I want a sustainable project, not to win a year and then dismantle it," he warned as soon as he arrived, alluding to Inter.He's never heard of that before. But Roma is a club he likes, he says. And that's why, when he turns 1,000 games on the bench with an average of 2.11 points per game, he has called on the fans to celebrate next season.

Mourinho loves Rome, there is no doubt. He says now that he already adored her when he was at Inter, where he is still a legend. And it seems that he is willing to understand her thoroughly. But it is not easy. So he lived for a month in a hotel downtown and then considered moving to the fabulous Palazzo Orsini Taverna, just behind Piazza Navona. He ended up opting for the Parioli neighborhood, where the Roman bourgeoisie resides: dentists, architects, psychiatrists ... And also the owner of the club. No nouveau riche developments on the outskirts. No other coach is remembered here who did it. But it is useful. Or rather fundamental if one wants to understand what the city that bears the name of the club he trains means, as Josep Lluís Núñez would say.

The neighbors take pictures with him when he goes out for a walk, visits museums or has a pasta with his tracksuit - they recently saw him on the terrace of the Hungaria bar, in the center of his neighborhood. He enjoys that promiscuity. You have decided that you want to be one of them. Now he is exposed on social networks, eats pizza on the train and posts it on Instagram. He makes the ball permanently to the public, a type of hobby he has never enjoyed. He has even asked the club for the Roma anthem, the one written by Antonello Venditti, to play when the teams are on the pitch and not before. So they will know that the Olympic is not the field of Benevento,

. The city celebrates him with murals and graffiti in the Testaccio neighborhood, ground zero of Romanism. And the first book on his Roman experience has already been presented with all pomp. It's called

.

The club, however, has not responded to that delivery. In the market they have given him almost nothing of what he asked for. Especially the Swiss Xhaka. And that worries Mourinho. Because he knows that the traditional cynicism of the Romans is explained, in part, because there can be nothing more extraordinary than a 2,700-year-old city. Not even a Martian. And that makes things great at first, but cruelty ends up emerging whenever defeat looms. Or when things just don't seem so new anymore. It happened to the Martian. After two weeks, turned into the attraction of half Rome, a guy found him in a cafeteria occupying a stool for too long, looked at him with contempt and said in dialect: “Aho, marzià, scansate [Eh, Marciano, get up from there]".

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