José Mourinho is unperturbed by Antonio Conte’s vow to remember the Manchester United manager’s attack on him and bemused by his Chelsea counterpart’s behaviour throughout their heated dispute.
It is understood Mourinho has no plans to escalate the situation, the 54-year-old’s attitude being that he prefers to focus on United’s campaign.
Mourinho is surprised at Conte’s stance, believing himself blameless because of the Chelsea manager mistakenly thinking he was the “clown on the touchline” the Portuguese spoke of last week.
This caused Conte to state Mourinho was suffering from “demenza senile” last Friday. Mourinho said that night that he was referring to his younger self as a manager with the clown remark but then apparently referenced the Chelsea manager’s four-month ban for failing to report alleged match-fixing. Mourinho stated he never would be banned for the practice.
Conte’s response was to brand Mourinho a “little man”, saying: “It’s really difficult to answer these comments. When a person has the target to offend, you are a little man.”
On Tuesday Conte followed stated he would not forget the United manager’s words but Mourinho is unmoved. Conte’s side host Arsenal in Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Stamford Bridge, after which he may well be asked again about the fall-out with Mourinho.
