im glad Conte has decided to take on the odious ****. Good on him. Antonio Conte has branded José Mourinho a “little man” and a “fake” in an astonishing escalation of the verbal war that has broken out between the pair in recent days. The Chelsea manager, clearly furious at Mourinho’s latest salvo regarding Conte’s ban for failing to report match-fixing while working in Italy, used the majority of his press conference after the 0-0 draw at Norwich to leave no doubt of the contempt in which he holds his Manchester United counterpart. In a lengthy and clearly premeditated outburst he also brought up Mourinho’s show of support for the former Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri, appearing to suggest it had been an affectation “I think before you make this type of comment, before to hurt another person, you must pay great attention,” Conte said of Mourinho, who had stated the previous day he had never been, and will never be, suspended for match-fixing. “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 behaviours … 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.” Mourinho’s jibe had followed a suggestion from Conte earlier on Friday that the Portuguese was suffering from “demenza senile”. That was in response to an assertion from Mourinho that he did not have to “behave as a clown on the touchline” to demonstrate his passion, seen as a reference to Conte. At the time Chelsea stressed that Conte had meant “amnesia” rather than the direct English translation of “senile dementia” and he settled on the former when returning to the theme at Carrow Road. “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.” Conte explained the facts of his four-month suspension while manager of Juventus, which was handed down for allegedly neglecting to inform the authorities of match-fixing offences during an earlier spell in charge of Siena. He was found innocent in May 2016. His evisceration of Mourinho did not end there and, without prompting, he raised what he saw as the two-faced treatment of Ranieri. “I remember a stupid example with Ranieri,” he said. “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.” That referred to an incident in 2008, during which Mourinho said his Chelsea predecessor had “still struggled to say ‘good morning’ and ‘good afternoon’” during five years in England. After Ranieri was sacked by Leicester last February, Mourinho arrived at a press conference with the letters “CR” emblazoned on his training top. The rapid intensification of an enmity that has festered for some time could come to a head on 25 February, when Chelsea visit Old Trafford. “It will be the opportunity in the game against United when we go to Old Trafford,” Conte said. “Me and him face to face. I’m ready. I don’t know if he’s ready.”
As an Inter fan I obviously idolise Jose but he’s being a twat here. Conte was never banned for match fixing and Jose knows this very well, he was just trying to take advantage of lazy reporting in UK media. And Conte doesn’t go far enough with the Ranieri stuff, when Inter boss and Roma were rivals for the title, Jose engaged in a really quite unsavoury long running tirade of insults about Ranieri’s age and the fact that he’d never won. To then support him in this way was again Amnesia. Mourinho added: "Ranieri...has the mentality of someone who doesn’t need to win. He is almost 70 years old. He has won a Supercup and another small trophy and he is too old to change his mentality.”
I’d bet my mortgage that Jose’s response references hair. I don’t think any of it really matters in the long run anyway, Conte will almost certainly leave at the end of the season, probably to Meelan betting fans, and Jose will stay and pick a new battle.
The managers are becoming more like the footballers and feel as if they should be entertaining! Could you imagine Fergie jumping into the crowd? Certain managers you wouldn’t dare pick a fight with! Fergie,shanks,cloughie etc? These new guys are amateurs I tell ya!
Mourinho's a ****, he couldn't even accept when we beat him, kept saying it was a draw because one of the goals was wrongly awarded. **** off.
Mourinho is master of this All he's doing is taking the lime out away from how crap Utd have been this season despite spending £300m. Everything time a Mourinho team plays crap he'll do or say something controversial to deflect attention.
Erm, yes it was. It completely deflected attention from his team playing crap against a relegation contender in a game they should’ve lost.
I suppose you need to deflect the attention when you go 14 points clear of your rivals and remain unbeaten. I'd expect any manager of any team to complain about the ref when a penalty was awarded for a dive in the last few minutes and then someone deliberately tries to injury your star player to prevent a break away. Funny how it was said in the heat of the moment and then dropped, not like this pathetic side show that Jose has going at the moment.
I suppose Jose needs to deflect attention when they’re second in the league - ahead of Conte’s side - and the team has vastly improved under his tenure after successively failing to qualify for the Champions League.
All this talk about Pep, Conte and Jose then reference to Palace raises another point - we all know he won’t get it due to the norm being the title winner receives it, but surely Hodgson has been the manager of the season. To do the job he’s done with the mark against his name in taking the worst starting PL team in history to a point in early Jan where nobody thinks they’ll go down is nothing short of remarkable. He really isn’t getting the credit he deserves.
He does when he's out of the title race be Christmas and gets knocked out of the cup by a Championship team, all whilst playing terrible football with one of the most expensive squads in the league.
