Toxic endgame looms for José Mourinho as doom cycle comes round ever quicker | Jonathan Wilson

Roma manager is perhaps the last of the personality coaches, his capacity to inspire by charismatic authority now fading fast

After his Roma side had lost 1-0 at Bologna, José Mourinho pursued the referee Luca Pairetto down the tunnel, enraged at the bookings that meant Tammy Abraham and Rick Karsdorp would be suspended for last weekend’s game against Internazionale. “I’ll have to invent the lineup on Saturday,” he later told the media. “Luckily, I replaced Gianluca Mancini. Otherwise, he may have been booked too.”

With his captain Lorenzo Pellegrini out with a muscular problem and Stephan El Shaarawy suffering a calf problem, Mourinho had to field a weakened lineup against Inter – and nobody could be in any doubt that that was not Mourinho’s fault. Although it was his decision to leave last season’s top scorer, Borja Mayoral, on the bench.

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