Jose Mourinho claims being humiliated by Conte
Football News – Jose Mourinho was involved in a furious bust-up after angrily accusing Antonio Conte of setting out to “humiliate” him.
The Manchester United boss was incensed after Conte appeared to try and whip up the Chelsea fans after N’Golo Kante scored a fourth goal to ruin Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho, talking in Italian, whispered to Conte at the final whistle: “It’s just my opinion, but don’t do that at 4-0. You can at 1-0, but at 4-0 it’s humiliation.”
The bitter spat then spilled over into the tunnel after a member of Mourinho’s United backroom staff snubbed Conte’s attempt to shake hands after the game which led to an angry row between both sets of coaching staff.
When asked about the row in the press conference, Mourinho said: “You know me. I spoke to Conte, not to you. I’m not the kind of guy to come here and share with you things I don’t want to share. That is his problem. I have no comment.”
Conte hit back: “I was a football player, so I know how to behave on the pitch. There were United fans who kept singing, while ours were in silence after a great performance from my team. I wanted to call the crowd to applaud the players, which seems normal enough to me.
“I have great respect for everyone. Nothing happened with Jose, especially as my behaviour seemed normal. I didn’t make fun of anyone, as I always demand respect.
“If you want to cut the emotions, we can stay at home and I will change jobs. I did something absolutely normal. I didn’t do anything to humiliate Mourinho.”
It was Mourinho’s biggest defeat in the Premier League and he was furious with United’s defending – particularly on Pedro’s opener – which he branded “ridiculous and incredible.”
Mourinho, who admitted that defender Eric Bailly faces a lengthy lay-off with a “really bad” knee ligament injury, said: “We made an incredible defensive mistake, I say incredible IN CAPITALS, in the first minute and then the game is different. The game is different.
“The project is we are six points from the top of the league. We are not 16 points. We are six. We are maybe three, maximum four, from the top four. We are not 30 or 40. So we are there.”
Conte added: “This game was very important for our ambitions. After two defeats against two great teams like Liverpool and Arsenal, today it was very important to offer a good answer and win against a very strong team like United.
“For this reason, we took three points but we won against a strong team. After this type of win, usually it increases your confidence.”
Category: Football
