The reporters in attendance at Jose Mourinho’s Friday press conference were giddy at the prospect of another sound bite about Antonio Conte.
The managers have been going back and forth for the past week, lobbing increasingly vicious insults in each other’s direction.
Having spent a good portion of last season exchanging abuse via the media, the war of words reared its ugly head again at the turn of the year, when Mourinho said: “You don’t have to behave like a crazy guy on the touchline.”
Conte hit back by accusing the Manchester United boss of hypocrisy, suggesting that Mourinho had forgotten that he has raucously celebrated goals and wins before.
Then things got ugly…
“What never happened to me – and will never happen – is to be suspended for match-fixing. That never happened to me and will never happen,” Mourinho said, referencing claims that Conte was aware of some nefarious goings-on during his time in charge of Siena and didn’t alert the relevant authorities.
Conte then branded the Portuguese “a little man” before menacingly claiming that he wouldn’t forget Mourinho’s comments.
Journalists gathered excitedly on Friday afternoon for the latest round in the prize fight but the Red Devils manager would not be drawn into insulting Conte again, insisting that his silence would bring an end to the row.
“No, I think when a person insults another you can expect a response,” Mourinho said, via Manchester Evening News.
“Or you can expect contempt, silence. The first time he insulted me I had a response, a response that I know that touched the point where he really feels hurt.
“Then he insulted me for a second time but now I change and now contempt and for me, contempt means the end of the story.”
