Antonio Conte versus Jose Mourinho now enters round four. The Chelsea manager has launched another attack at his Manchester United counterpart, this time in a much more scathing fashion. The Italian labeled Mourinho “a little man” with “a very low profile” and a “fake.”
The current war of words began when Mourinho inferred that Conte acted like a clown on the touchline. Conte responded by saying Mourinho had amnesia for his own past antics. Mourinho hit back by throwing in a match-fixing barb, referencing Conte’s individual history with that issue. And now, Conte returned fire, devoting almost all of his post match press conference today to articulating just how much he despises Mourinho.
“I think before you make this type of comment, before to hurt another person, you must pay great attention,” Conte said of Mourinho, after his side’s 0-0 draw with Norwich City.
“You show you are a little man. A little man. You don’t know very well (what) is the situation, but I know him very well in the past. In the past he was a little man in many circumstances, is a little man in the present and for sure he will be a little man in the future.
“Also if he wants to try to change his behaviors…but the person’s this, Mourinho’s this. You know him very well. The level is very low. I repeat: I think before to speak you have to know very well what happened.”
Wow! This will certainly ratchet up the tension between the two men. Conte did say just yesterday that he was up for a fight with any manager who would keep on criticizing him. The Blues boss is currently in a tiff with Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger at the same time.
Conte was not done laying into Mourinho.
“This is not my problem, I consider him a little man,” Conte repeated. “I consider him a man with a very low profile.”
“There is a story to speak for him and for me. You can change the story, but you have to know the story very well before hurting another person. In the last period he’s suffering a bit of amnesia. We are there, amnesia. When you become to be older, there is this type of risk. Also for me, and for you – for all. The problem is if you show this. He must pay great attention. He’s doing this with regularity.”
He still wasn’t done trashing the man who held his current position before he assumed it (with Guus Hiddink the interim boss in between). Conte then decided to bring up Claudio Ranieri in order to continue his verbal assault on Mourinho.
“I remember a stupid example with Ranieri,” Conte continued.
“When he offended Ranieri for his English. Then when Ranieri was sacked he put on a shirt for Ranieri. You are a fake. I think you have good consideration for a person or not. It doesn’t change your opinion to be more sympathetic. If you want to fight a person, you try to kill this person. And then after two years you try to help this person, because maybe it’s good for you, for your profile.”
Well now, where does this feud go from here? If possible, wouldn’t it be something if the FA Cup draw pits these two men against each other? They are scheduled for their second of the two Premier League meetings this season on February 25. That touchline encounter will be must see TV.
In the meantime, we all await Jose Mourinho’s response to Mourinho’s latest tirade.
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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