Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has taken strong exception to comments made by Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho yesterday. Mourinho, being questioned on his long term commitment to United explained why he hasn’t put down permanent roots in Manchester. He was also questioned on his zeal, to which he made the following reply:
“Because I don’t behave as a clown on the touchline, it means that I’ve lost my passion?”
Some read that remark as a slam against overly ebullient managers in general. Others read it as a dig at Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp or at Conte, or at both. The Blues boss certainly made it clear what he read into the statement, as he responded with fire and fury.
“I think that he has to see himself in the past, maybe he was speaking about himself in the past, yeah?” Conte, known for often engaging in touchline histrionics, said Friday.
“Maybe sometimes, I think that someone forget what they said in the past or his behavior and sometimes I think there is, I don’t know the name, ‘demenza senile’ when you are a bit (points at the top of his head) when you forget what you do in the past.”
Conte used an Italian phrase there in “demenza senile,” and that translates into English as “senile dementia.” However, Chelsea spokespeople later claimed that Conte meant to say amnesia.
Antonio Conte definitely has a point, as Mourinho famously ran along the Old Trafford touchline in 2004, celebrating his Porto side beating United in the UEFA Champions League. The incident has stuck in the mind of Sir Alex Ferguson ever since.
There has obviously been bad blood between these two men for some time, and Mourinho is obviously bitter toward the team that sacked him in December of 2015. It’s clear today that claims made by the two managers ahead of Chelsea’s win in early November, their insisting that they do not have a serious issue with one another, was total bunk.
Conte was not done taking swipes at Mourinho either. The Blues boss went on to slam Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, and then went back to taking aim at Mourinho again.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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