JOSE MOURINHO may have a few grey hairs now, but he still clearly has his trademark silver tongue.
It comes after Fenerbahce manager Mourinho hit back in a spat with Galatasaray forward Mauro Icardi.
The Argentine had labelled Mourinho as “the crying one” as a reference to his “special one” nickname coined all those years ago when he first joined Chelsea.
Mourinho, 62, gave a sarcastic but sharp reply to the 31-year-old.
Speaking to reporters before his side face Anderlecht in the Europa League play-offs, he said: “I show I am a special one, not the special one.
“With 25 years of career and 26 titles and not with one match. That is not one match to define my career. My career is a career of 25 years.
“In relation to the comments of Icardi, Icardi is a GOAT and I refuse to comment on a GOAT’s words. He is too big, I won’t comment.”
Reacting to the comments on social media, one fan said: “My refusal to accept ‘goat’ in anything other than its traditional footballing definition makes this 100 times funnier.”
A second said: “He is never afraid to bring the smoke, Jose. He is Hollywood.”
A third added: “You have to love Jose Mourinho.”
Another said: “He is just so much fun.”
The entire argument started when Mourinho made reference to Galatasaray’s alleged favouritism with referees in Turkey in a post on Instagram.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D106466%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /] [bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Watch Jose Mourinho slap Fenerbahce translator after comical ‘toilet’ mistake during press conference ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6368305247112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Galatasaray’s clash with Adana Demirspor was abandoned when Adana’s players walked off the pitch after 30 minutes in protest at a controversial penalty decision.
Mourinho then used a picture showing ex-Tottenham defender Davinson Sanchez handling the ball in the box in a game against Gaziantep last week, with no penalty being given.
He captioned the post: “In the Handball World Cup that ended last Sunday, my Portugal team brilliantly reached the semi-finals and I want to congratulate them for such an achievement and the impact they will have on our country’s youth.”
Icardi had then replied by posting a meme of the “crying one” on his Instagram story, thus prompting Mourinho’s next response.
Mourinho has been famously outspoken against officials throughout his career, with that trend continuing in Turkey.
He was fined more than £20,000 and given a one-match ban for launching a rant against Super Lig and the officiating standard in November.
Speaking after a 3-2 win over Trazbonspor, he had said: “Nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league. Who wants to watch this Turkish league abroad?
“They have the Premier League, they have the French league, they have the German league, they have the Portuguese league, they have the Dutch league. Why would they watch this?
“It’s too grey. It’s too dark, smells bad. But that’s my job, and I will give everything to my job, to my club.”
He followed up by saying: “We were in good control, winning 1-0 when Atilla woke up because in the first half he was probably having Turkish tea.
“The man of the match was Atilla Karaoglan. We didn’t see him but he was the referee.
“The referee was just a little boy that was there on the pitch, but the referee was Atilla Karaoglan.”
Fenerbahce are three points behind Galatasaray in the league, though the leaders have a game in hand.