Roma boss Jose Mourinho is keen to be reunited with Tottenham defender Eric Dier in the Italian capital after previously admitting he was “wrong” about the player
Jose Mourinho wants to be reunited with Eric Dier at Roma
Jose Mourinho wants to be reunited with Tottenham defender Eric Dier at Roma.
The Italian side’s difficult start to the season continued on Thursday night with a heavy 4-1 defeat at newly-promoted Genoa. Only two other teams in the Italian top-flight – Sassuolo and Empoli – have conceded more goals across the first six matchdays than Mourinho’s side (11).
The Giallorossi lost defender Roger Ibanez to Saudi club Al-Ahli while central defensive kingpin Chris Smalling is also out injured. Ivorian international Evan Ndicka has endured a difficult start to life in the Italian capital since his summer switch from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Smalling has suffered from tendon issues this season and aged 34, Mourinho is said to be concerned about the lack of depth he possesses in the position. Dier, who impressed under the Portuguese boss at Spurs – has yet to feature this campaign and is an option for the January transfer window.
A report in Calciomercato expands on how Mourinho is keen to sign the England international, who has amassed over 350 first-team appearances for Spurs but does not appear to form part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans in north London.
Yet the two have shared a somewhat complicated history, with Mourinho’s final few months at Spurs seeing the two exchange public comments contradicting each other – although the boss appeared to be happy that Dier felt confident enough to defend himself publicly.
Back in early 2021 when Mourinho was still in charge of Spurs, he claimed that several of his players were particularly impacted by confidence issues – and namechecked Dier as one of them: “Players have moments. They can be very good, they can be strong personalities, they can be experienced, they can cope with a mistake but in the end, they are men.
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Dier featured for Spurs in pre-season but has yet to make a competitive appearance under Postecoglou (
Image:
Pakawich Damrongkiattisak/Getty Images)
“And they feel more than anyone else these little moments of confidence, of crisis. I have to admit that recently our team makes little important mistakes that are punished in terms of our results. And Eric was there, he was one of them. They feel it. And I believe confidence, that drops a little bit.”
Dier quickly hit back, telling The Guardian: “Confidence-wise, I don’t feel like I’ve been in a bad place all season. I’ve gone through periods where I’ve had low confidence in the past so I know what it feels like and I haven’t felt that this season. The most important thing is the reality, and people’s perception versus reality can be different sometimes.”
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And in response to those comments, Mourinho stated that he admires players who do not suffer from crises of confidence and retracted his original assessment.
“I prefer that, I prefer that I’m wrong,” the Spurs boss admitted in the response. . “I prefer that it has nothing to do with low confidence. I prefer players with big personality, like the player who missed two penalties in a row but still has the confidence to be the penalty taker. And on the third penalty he gets the ball to try again.
“So I’m very happy that it’s not a mental situation, not a psychological situation. I’m really, really happy with that.”
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