As you might recall, the day after the announcement that José Mourinho would be taking over from Paulo Fonseca, all hell broke loose in the Italian media.
Players, mostly from the Premier League, were sent to Rome left, right and centre, with a few from his former club, Tottenham Hotspur, in the list.
The two prominent ones were Eric Dier and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, but they were always a long shot, regardless of how much they enjoyed working under the Portuguese.
Gazzetta dello Sport look at the updated situation on Monday, explaining the England international ‘has a three-year contract and has no desire to break up with the club’, while his Danish teammate ‘has only been with Spurs for one season and wants to stay in the Premier League’.
Because of that, the Italian newspaper explain Mourinho ‘will look elsewhere for reinforcements for his Roma’, mostly because they don’t want to move, but also ‘out of a form of respect for his old club’.
That doesn’t mean he won’t still be looking at names he knows well from his time in London, with Carlos Vinicius remaining a potential target of his.
As for Erik Lamela, who could be one of the few players Tottenham allow to leave, his name is ‘little more than a suggestion’, especially when you take into account the small amount of minutes he played under Mourinho in London.
Furthermore, ‘he doesn’t seem like a viable name for what the Friedkins (Roma’s owners) have in mind’.
