As we often cover here, the Portuguese press loves the fact that so many players and managers from Portugal are having a chance to work in the Premier League.
Those who work in England get much more attention than the others, so every single piece of news or results that involve a Portuguese in the Premier League, or even the Championship, will get a paragraph.
But something more rare are opinion articles about English football, and after what we’ve read today, we really hope they continue being sporadic.
In a desperate attempt to defend Manchester United manager José Mourinho in his public war against Chelsea’s Antonio Conte, journalist Eládio Paramés has written a column titled: “Mr. Antonio Conte, do you know what’s the EPO?”
Yep, as everyone thought the Manchester United and Chelsea spat couldn’t get any worse, Eládio Paramés has asked someone to hold his beer.
Paramés recalls Juventus’ doping scandal in the 90’s, when players were accused of using blood-boosting hormones, with Antonio Conte among them. The allegation was later rejected, but mud continues to be thrown.
The Record column also recalls that Conte has been dragged into match-fixing scandals , and despite being cleared this ‘fame’ has never abandoned him.
That’s the reason why the Chelsea manager would have no grounds to call his Manchester United rival ‘little man’. The journalist’s last words on the matter go as follows: “He may be [a little man], but he is much bigger than the Italian in the amount of titles conquered and in… hair!”
So if the fight between Mourinho and Conte wasn’t childish enough, now we have a Portuguese journalist making it even worse.