Matic: I left Chelsea to work with better boss

NEMANJA MATIC has put the boot into Antonio Conte, insisting Jose Mourinho is the better manager. Matic won the Premier League title with Conte’s Chelsea last season. But he joined Manchester United in the summer in a £40million deal and is now on a mission to turn Mourinho’s men into title winners again. The implication was that Mourinho was taking a swipe at Conte this week when he said other managers cry about injuries.

United travel to Chelsea on Guy Fawkes Night and now Matic has fanned the flames even more by claiming Mourinho is the best manager he has had.

Serbian Matic said: “Mourinho is a brand and the best coach I’ve ever worked with. Sometimes it isn’t easy to work with him, because he always demands more.

“Even when you play the best match in your career, he considers that you can play better in the next match.

“But I co-operated excellently with him at Chelsea, and the fact that Mourinho is the coach at Manchester was the decisive factor in my choosing my new environment.” Matic believes Mourinho is a top person as well as a top boss and is sometimes given the wrong image.

He said: “Privately he’s completely different from the way he is perceived by the general public.

“This is a man who possesses all human virtues. He’s not at all cold or conceited, as he is presented in the media.

“He has created an excellent group of players with huge potential and everything is there for us to achieve good results.

“I don’t want to talk about the goals of the club, but when I mention Manchester United I think the ambitions are clear to everyone.

“We will do our best to achieve the results that previous generations had.”

United, meanwhile, are poised to activate a 12-month extension in the contract of Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera.