Roma coach Jose Mourinho has praised Tammy Abraham for showing “ambition” to join the club from Chelsea and describes the transfer of 40 million euros as a “real coup”.
Abraham scored 30 goals in all competitions in two seasons as Chelsea’s number nine, despite starting just 51 games in that time and losing his place almost completely after Thomas Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard as manager at Stamford Bridge in January.
The 23-year-old Englishman arrives in Rome to fill the shoes of the late veteran Edin Dzeko, who has joined Inter after scoring 119 goals for Giallorossi since 2015.
Mourinho has admitted that losing Dzeko has been a “surprise”, but praised the Roman hierarchy for how the situation has been handled and the capture of Abraham.
“In an incredibly difficult market and in a financial situation that is difficult for every, or more precisely, almost every club, which has the will, ambition, respect for the fans and reacts in this way after losing Dzeko and bringing in Tammy Abraham was a real coup “, said the Portuguese coach to the club’s official website.
“He never played for me because he was a 14, 15 and 16-year-old boy when I was at Chelsea, but I know him very well. I know him as a player, person and in terms of his mentality. I know how he made the decision to leave the Premier League, which is always difficult for an English player. ”
Mourinho continued: “It says so much about him because when you leave the Premier League you do it because you are ambitious. You leave because you want to return to your national team, because you want to play in the World Cup, because you want have success outside of England, where not many English players have had brilliant careers.
“He comes here with that ambition and we hope to see his best qualities as a player.”
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