Jose Mourinho will manage AS Roma for the next three seasons, with the club preparing to present their new coach in some style. I believe it's a backward step in his career.
The thought of the Portuguese managing Roma would have been bizarre a few years ago, but after being sacked by Tottenham, it appears the club from the Italian capital was the best option for a quick return to work.
Despite his remarkable career, in the last five years Mourinho has won zero titles at Tottenham, seen a lacklustre departure from Manchester United, and a similar falling out with Chelsea in his second spell at Stamford Bridge.
Intriguing, then, that he took the Roma opportunity only 10 days after leaving Tottenham. The club had not even secured European football at that stage, with a place in the European Conference League, the newest and weakest of Uefa's club tournaments, coming right at the end of the season.
Was Mourinho afraid of not being hired by a better club? In my opinion, yes.
Some commentators say that the move is not a step back, but to the side. They compare Tottenham with Roma at a similar level. Not me. Roma are a few rungs below.
Apart from Spurs being in a far more competitive competition in the Premier League, according to the website transfermarkt.com the team has a value of $810 million. Roma's is worth is $450m.
Tottenham have Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Giovani Lo Celso, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in their talented line-up, while Roma have recently emerged Nicolo Zaniolo, established Lorenzo Pellegrini and the top defenders Gianluca Mancini and Marash Kumbulla.
The power of the two squads is not comparable.
Also, Roma were in the Champions League for the last time in 2019, being
eliminated in the round of 16 by Porto. In the same edition of the competition, Tottenham were runners-up to Liverpool.
For Roma, hiring Mourinho is, as the club maintained, “un grande passo in avanti“ (a big step forward). I understand the clubs words. Mourinho has more titles than the club. He has amassed 25 trophies, while Roma, founded almost 94 years ago, have 15.
From the Italians' point of view, I think the right decision was made, although with risks. Roma are a powder keg these days - but without the powder.
Mourinho brings the powder that Roma require. The club needs a strong personality, a man capable of capturing global attention and motivating disbelieving and detached supporters.
Mourinho is perfect for that purpose. He will be able to play the underdog again, as he has in the past. Nobody gave Porto a chance in the 2004 Champions League, and they won. Similarly with European kings Inter in 2010.
Although Mourinho didn't expect this opportunity, history repeats itself and it will again be a great challenge. He certainly did not expect to return to this point at this stage of his career. But let's be clear: he had no option.
At his last clubs, Mourinho did not show that aura of the 'Special One' that used to characterize him. He was unable to establish a lasting emotional connection with players. Instead, he started personal battles with the likes of Paul Pogba, Luke Shaw, Gareth Bale or Dele Alli.
For Mourinho, this step back was inevitable. In Roma, he has a project like Porto in 2004.
There may not be a concrete reason to explain his decline, but sporting, generational and mental circumstances have seen him lose his superpowers.
Let's wait for what he's going to do in Rome.
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
Generation Start-up: Awok company profile
Started: 2013
Founder: Ulugbek Yuldashev
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 600 plus
Stage: still in talks with VCs
Principal Investors: self-financed by founder
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Release Date: April 10
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
