The war of words between Chelsea manager Antonio Conte and his counterpart at Manchester United Jose Mourinho, escalated over the weekend.
The United boss rejected the suggestion that it was Conte he was calling a clown last week when he spoke about managers who lack maturity on the touchline.
“Because I don’t behave as a clown on the touchline, it means that I’ve lost my passion?
“I prefer to behave the way I’m doing it. Much more mature, better for my team, better for myself.
“I don’t think you have to behave like a crazy guy on the touchline to have that passion.
“That passion you see it every day, the way a person is dedicated to his work, not what you do in front of the cameras.”
Mourinho brought up a charge of failing to report match fixing which was brought against Conte during his time working as a club manager in Italy, he was subsequently cleared of any wrong doing.
The Chelsea manager labelled Mourinho ‘a little man’ and suggested his poor memory may be a result of "senile dementia."
I think that he has to see himself in the past, maybe he was speaking about himself in the past, yeah?"
Conte continued: "And sometimes I think there is, I don't know the name—'demenza senile'?—when when you forget what you do in the past."
The sides are set to meet on the pitch in the Premier League at the end of next month. Manchester City’s march towards the title has killed the drama usually associated with the title race, this fued though will likely keep football fans interested in the coming weeks.
It is one that football fans would love to see settled in the ring:
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ding... ding...<br><br>🥊🔴Mourinho v Conte 🔵🥊 - Round 2! <a href="https://t.co/9nWu41mVQ1">pic.twitter.com/9nWu41mVQ1</a></p>— 98FM Sport (@98FMsport) <a href="https://twitter.com/98FMsport/status/950302757889724416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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