PSG considering a shock swoop for Roma boss Jose Mourinho as Pochettino is likely to get sacked
AS Roma manager and reigning champion of the UEFA Conference League, Jose Mourinho has turned into a potential target for French giants Paris Saint Germain. Current manager Mauricio Pochettino is expected to depart the club in the coming weeks, meaning that PSG will be in the market for a new manager.
Mourinho is currently plying his trade in Serie A at Roma after joining at the end of last season. The self-proclaimed 'Special One' led AS Roma to a 6th-placed finish in the league, while becoming the first manager to win all three European titles by winning the inaugural edition of the UEFA Conference League.
Jose's value plummeted after two failed spells at Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, which led many to believe it to be the last job the Portuguese is going to get at a top club. But after a successful season in Rome, PSG is willing to gamble on the former United boss, who will be eager to manage the likes of Messi, Mbappe and Neymar.
That Pochettino is leaving the French capital in the summer is one of the worst kept secrets in football as the board are unhappy with the performances of the former Spurs boss. PSG won the Ligue 1 title but once again failed to win the Champions League as they were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Real Madrid.
The result comes on the back of a huge summer at the club which saw the arrivals of Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donnarumma. Pochettino has a contract at PSG that runs until the summer of 2023 but it looks like the Qatari board are not convinced by the Argentinian.
Since getting linked to the French giants, the former Chelsea boss' comments on PSG in 2020 have resurfaced. Mourinho blasted PSG's project as a failure before the Champions League final against Bayern Munich.
"I think it is a failure that they didn't win it in the two seasons before because for five or six years the investment is crazy, the list of top players that is there is incredible," Mourinho told DAZN.
"For how many seasons Thiago Silva is there, Marquinhos is there, and then all the big guys, Ibra [Zlatan Ibrahimovic], [Edinson] Cavani, Neymar, [Kylian] Mbappe. It's, of course, their dream and for the first time they arrive in this kind of situation and this is the kind of game where these guys normally flourish, even if I think that as a team, they are nothing from another world, these are players from another world."
It is reported that Zinedine Zidane is still the primary target for the Qatari-backed club but the former Real Madrid manager is targeting to replace Didier Deschamps as the French national team manager after the World Cup. This could possibly open the door for the Special One, who will be tasked with bringing the Champions League to Paris, having won it before with Porto and Inter Milan.