January 8 – Mind games between managers are nothing new. Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson was a past master at it.
But an ongoing feud between Jose Mourinho, the current United boss, and Chelsea’s Antonio Conte has gone beyond that following an exchange of personal insults that is making footballing headlines across the UK.
The war of words can be traced back to when Conte took over Mourinho’s old job at Chelsea in 2016 and said the club had to avoid “a Mourinho season” referring to the previous campaign’s failure.
Since then there have been a number of further spats which came to a head when Mourinho, without mentioning Conte by name, criticised coaches for behaving like “clowns” on the touchline.
Conte, whose passionate arm-waving antics are legendary, did not take such comments lightly and responded by saying Mourinho conveniently “forgets what he said in the past or his behaviours”.
Back came Mourinho by provocatively declaring he would “never be suspended for matchfixing,” a comment clearly directed at Conte for when the Italian received a four-month suspension while at Juventus in 2012-13 for failing to report match-fixing at his previous club Siena. In 2016, Conte was cleared by a court of any wrongdoing in the matter.
That was just about all Conte could take as he upped the ante again at the weekend by describing Mourinho as a “little man.”
“I think when there are these types of comments, comments where you try to offend the person and don’t know the truth, then you are a little man,” Conte told the BBC on Saturday.
“In the past he was a little man in many circumstances, he’s a little man in the present and for sure he will be a little man in the future. I consider him a little man and I consider him a man with a very low profile.”
Not surprisingly, supporters of both clubs as well as just about every neutral fan can’t wait for the next meeting on the field scheduled for February 25.
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