Mourinho's friend: Conte captained a Juventus team fuelled by EPO

A journalist close to Jose Mourinho says Antonio Conte captained a Juventus team fuelled by EPO, and that the Portuguese has better hair.

Doctor Riccardo Agricola was given a 22-month suspended prison sentence in 2004 for administering banned substances to players between 1994 and 1998, including the blood booster EPO.

In December 2005 though, both he and managing director Antonio Giraudo were cleared of sporting fraud by Turin's court of appeal.

Conte and Mourinho have been trading barbs in recent days, and a Portuguese journalist who has been described as Mou’s unofficial spokesman brought up the doping trial in an opinion piece for Record today.

“The analyses were conclusive and definitive, according to the anti-doping authorities,” wrote Eladio Parames.

“The matter ended up before the courts. Appeal after appeal, influence from various sides made it possible to archive the trial and not have anyone seriously punished, to the despair of the controllers.

“And who was the Juve captain? Antonio Conte!

“Later that same gentleman was suspended for six months, accused of being involved in the ‘arrangement’ of results. He denied this, of course, but the infamy of being involved in murky negotiations has never gone away.

“And it is this gentleman, who as you can see comes from an untainted past, who accuses Jose Mourinho of, among other things, smallness.

“Could be, but he’s much bigger than the Italian in terms of trophies won and in… hair!”

There is no suggestion that Mourinho himself echoes these sentiments, but the quotes are being picked up extensively because of his close relationship with Parames.