The pair have been exchanging words this week.
Jose Mourinho has risked stoking the flames of his rivalry with Antonio Conte after referring to the Chelsea manager’s previous ban for failing to report match-fixing.
Conte was banned for four months during the 2012/13 season after failing to report a match-fixing incident in 2011 while he was in charge of Siena in Italy. Conte was subsequently acquitted in May 2016.
The Blues boss had earlier on Friday suggested that Mourinho had a memory problem after the United coach aimed a thinly-disguised dig at him with regards to acting theatrically on the touchline.
Mou: "One thing I can say is I never was banned for match-fixing. And that will never happen." #MUFC #CFC (NB. Conte was banned 4 months for not reporting match-fixing he was claimed to have known about at Siena)
— Kris Voakes (@krisvoakes) January 5, 2018
Speaking after United’s 2-0 victory over Derby County on Friday evening, Mourinho responded by saying the following:
“One thing I can say is I never was banned for match-fixing. And that will never happen. I don’t blame him. The press should apologise to me + him. Question completely wrong + because of that, out of control reaction. I was speaking about myself. You said Mourinho said you behaved as a clown. I was speaking about myself.”
Mourinho is no stranger to having a war of words with his counterparts and he certainly doesn’t appear to be backing down from this one. Earlier on Friday, Conte suggested Mourinho had a memory problem considering the Portuguese coach’s reputation for touchline histrionics in the earlier part of his career:
“I think that he has to see himself in the past, maybe he was speaking about himself in the past, yeah? Maybe sometimes, I think that someone forgets what they said in the past or his behaviour and sometimes I think there is, I don’t know the name, ‘demenza senile’ when you are a bit… when you forget what you do in the past.”
