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Fenerbahce’s newly elected president, Sadettin Saran, made striking remarks about the team’s former coach, Jose Mourinho, accusing the Portuguese manager of conducting an inadequate preseason training camp in Portugal.
In a press conference on Wednesday at Chobani Stadium Sukru Saracoglu Sports Complex in Istanbul, Saran referred to the team’s poor preparation at the start of the season under Mourinho’s leadership and continued lack of performance under new coach Domenico Tedesco.
"There’s no point in talking about the past. I even blamed myself for saying that the camp went badly. I don’t want to go into detail, but only one training session per day was held in Portugal. That’s unacceptable. I won’t say more," he said, blaming Jose Mourinho for the unpreparedness of the team at the start of the season.
Saran emphasized that Fenerbahce players have been suffering from mental and physical burnout following a series of managerial changes within the club, identifying the training camp in Portugal as the starting point of the turmoil.
“When the new transfers arrived, Mourinho was still in charge. Five weeks later, he left—after what was already a very poor preseason period, whose effects we are still seeing,” Saran said. "Then there was a three-week gap before Tedesco took over. Three weeks after that, Ali Koc, who had been president for seven years, stepped down, and players suddenly found themselves working under Sadettin Saran, someone they didn’t know. I once said there was a sense of lifelessness at the club—if anything, that was an understatement. I saw it clearly when I visited Samandira."
Fenerbahce’s preseason training camp in Portugal took place between July 15 and July 27, during which the team played four friendly matches against Portimonense, Sunderland, Al Ittihad, and Benfica—the club that later knocked out Fenerbahce in the UEFA Champions League play-offs on Aug. 27. After the elimination from the Champions League and a weak start to the Turkish Super Lig—regarded as one of the most crucial seasons to claim the title and end the team’s long-standing title drought since 2014—the board terminated the Portuguese coach’s contract on Aug. 29.
Two weeks later, Italian coach Domenico Tedesco was appointed to replace Mourinho. Shortly after, a presidential election was held at the club on Sept. 21, resulting in then-president Ali Koc’s defeat to Sadettin Saran, amid harsh criticism over the team’s lack of success during his seven-year presidency.
In Saran’s first month in office, Tedesco came under the spotlight after winning only three of his first seven matches, with criticism focusing on the players’ lack of motivation and commitment—particularly during the UEFA Europa League clash against Dinamo Zagreb, which ended in a 3–1 defeat.
Speaking about that match during the press conference, Saran said, "After meeting the players before the game, I even said, ‘If we don’t lose heavily against Dinamo Zagreb, that will be good,’ because I could see how deeply affected the team was."
Reports suggest that assistant coach Domenico Tedesco also submitted an internal evaluation confirming that the camp in Portugal did not go well.
According to the Turkish sports daily Fanatik, the official training schedule distributed during the Portuguese camp indicated multiple double-session days. However, journalists who covered the camp said that, in practice, the team completed only one training session per day—except for a single instance—due to pitch conditions and the match calendar. The sessions reportedly lasted just 64 minutes on average.
Doruk Tecimer, a sports reporter for TRT Spor who was on site during the camp, said, "As a journalist who followed the camp in Portugal, I can confirm that the visual schedule of double sessions shared by the club was never implemented. Except for one day, Fenerbahce never held double training sessions."
Another Turkish sports journalist, Yusuf Kenan Calik, also noted that Fenerbahce’s official website corroborated these accounts, listing only one daily practice in its training updates, each stating that "the team held its single session in the evening."
When asked through WhatsApp to respond to Saran’s remarks, Mourinho gave a brief and pointed reply to the Turkish daily Sabah, saying, "I am no longer interested in Fenerbahce," and declined to elaborate further.
Jose Mourinho, the 62-year-old Portuguese coach who has won two UEFA Champions League titles and domestic league championships in Portugal, England, Italy, and Spain, joined Fenerbahce at the end of the 2022–2023 season as a savior for one of Türkiye’s most established football clubs, aiming to end years of underachievement and begin a new era of triumph. At his signing ceremony, thousands of Fenerbahce fans filled the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium and chanted his name to show their trust in him. "This shirt is my skin," Mourinho told the fans, reassuring them that he was fully committed to the club.
Then-Fenerbahce President Ali Koc announced the annual cost of Jose Mourinho’s contract, stating that the total yearly expense for Mourinho and his coaching staff amounts to €12 million ($13.97 million).
However, under his management, Fenerbahce finished second in the 2023–2024 Turkish Super Lig behind archrival Galatasaray and also failed to advance in the UEFA Europa League and the Turkish Cup. During his time at Fenerbahce, Mourinho was discussed more for his controversial remarks than for his achievements on the pitch.
After leaving the club, he took charge of Benfica—a move that caused public outrage in Türkiye, as Fenerbahce had been eliminated by the same team just weeks earlier.
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