Jose Mourinho is feuding again with Antonio Conte. As we predicted a while back, the Manchester United man would likely again pick Conte as a target this year, given their history and Chelsea's position in the league.

Here is a summary of their latest pithy slanging match:
Mourinho: 'You clown. You make like clown on touchline. And not even funny clown. Stoopid clown'
Conte: 'You clown too. You clown like monkey throwing cake at people'
Mourinho: 'Hah. And you is cheater. Yes, cheater clown'.

(Previous)

There is a long and geographically disperse group of club managers who have got themselves into feuds with Jose Mourinho. Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, even the mild mannered Rafa Benitez have found themselves embroiled in childish disputes with The Chosen One. Why does he do it? Does it not belittle his standing in the game and with his own players?

Two possible reasons:

1. He is a spoilt child who cannot keep his tantrums under control, or…

2. Maybe it’s part of his master plan: by making it personal, he might feel that he is proving to his players that he is fighting for them, and that it may help to inspire and cajole an extra 5% of effort out of them. Note that nearly all of Mourinho’s feuds are with managers of teams directly competing with his, and it is against these very teams that he needs that extra effort from his players.

Probably it’s a mix of both but we don’t think he would have achieved the success that he has if he too frequently let 1 get the better of 2.

Jose Mourinho’s Little Black Book (actually quite a big book):

Volume One: Managers
Pep Guardiola – a feud lasting back to Pep’s Barcelona days
Arsene Wenger – a clash of personalities and and a clash of style on the pitch
Manuel Pellegrini – Jose has been making remarks about him since he took over at Real in 2010
Claudio Ranieri – got on the wrong side of Mourinho when he was at Inter Milan
Antonio Conte – likely to continue as long as Conte is at Chelsea and challenging Chelsea for the Premier League.

To be continued (Vol 2: Players, Vol 3: Media, Vol 4: Fans).

(image: IBTimes)