Jose Mourinho has underlined his commitment to AS Roma after making history with the Italian club as rumours swirled over his future.
Newcastle have been strongly linked with the former Tottenham coach as they look to take themselves to the next level armed with their huge finances. While there had also been reports that Mourinho could leave for a national job.
But through a stream of tears, the 59-year-old insisted he would not be going anywhere and devoted his love to Roma following their victory in the Europa Conference League final. In the first of its kind, the Giallorossi lifted the trophy after beating Feyenoord 1-0 in Tirana, Albania.
Nicolo Zaniolo's first-half strike was enough to down the Dutch team and saw Mourinho win his fifth European trophy. With Porto, he won the UEFA Cup and the Champions League, lifting that again with Inter Milan in 2010.
He won the Europa League with Manchester United before Wednesday's victory with AS Roma, making him the first manager to lift all five trophies - despite the Europa League Conference being in its first year. Afterwards, Mourinho said: “I’m gonna turn down any proposal. I will stay here at Roma even if there are rumours. We made history today. I have no doubts, I will continue as Roma manage."
Domestically, it has not been the easiest of campaigns after Roma missed out on the Champions League while this has been a strong year for Italian clubs in Serie A. AC Milan pipped their rivals Inter Milan to the Scudetto while Napoli and Juventus made up the rest of the top four.
But Mourinho is already planning for the future with Roma and has insisted that he will be ready to go the next step when the new season arrives. Fighting back tears, he said: "There are so many things going through my head.
"So many things at the same time. I've been at Roma for 11 months, I realised the moment I arrived what it meant, they were waiting for this.
"As I told the lads in the locker room in Turin, we did what we needed to do, qualify for the Europa League. We had great work all season. This was not work tonight, this was history. We had to write history. We wrote it.
"The Conference League is a competition that we had the sensation from the start we could win, but it got a stronger competition when the Europa League teams came in, Leicester, Olympique Marseille and Feyenoord. But we were counting on it, we could've had a few more points in Serie A, but we put so much into this competition.
"Now I am staying, there are no doubts. Even if some rumours emerge, I only want to remain at Roma. We must understand what our owners, who are fantastic people, want to do next season, because this is history.
"But we can build a really strong project with honest professionals. We need to sit down and understand what the plan is for next season."
