Jose: I’ve cleared the air with Conte

JOSE MOURINHO has revealed that he ended his feud with Antonio Conte in a face-to-face meeting at Old Trafford in February. The two men meet once again tomorrow when Manchester United play Chelsea in the FA Cup final at Wembley. But Mourinho insists their war of words is over after they shook hands before United’s 2-1 win on February 25 and then met in his Old Trafford office afterwards. The feud had come to a head in January when Conte had labelled Mourinho ‘a little man’ and ‘a fake’ after he had brought up the Chelsea manager’s match-fixing controversy in Italy. Describing the handshake, Mourinho said: ‘He stretched out, I stretched. We got bored. ‘After the game in Manchester I invited him to come to my office. We talked, nothing’s wrong. It’s OK.’ The Cup final will be Mourinho’s last game alongside his long-serving assistant Rui Faria after 17 years together. Mourinho had indicated that he would not appoint a new No 2 next season, preferring instead to promote from within the club. However, Mourinho has now said that he is hoping to appoint a coach that he has worked with before. ‘There comes a person who worked with me earlier but I can’t say the name because it’s still tied to another club,’ he said. ‘Michael Carrick will be a coach but I’m looking for two new people. There are many good coaches.’ In an interview with Portuguese paper Record, Mourinho also paid tribute to Sir Alex Ferguson who will miss the game while he continues to recover from a brain haemorrhage. Mourinho said: ‘He’s ‘‘Sir’’ in everything. In behaviour, in the passion for the club. ‘Before I arrived he thought the managers didn’t feel very comfortable with his presence. ‘In fact, it was me who brought him back. At the end of a game in London he asked me for permission to travel with us back to Manchester. I said, “Place 1A is yours, I occupy what is vacant”. He’s a fantastic person.’ United’s top scorer Romelu Lukaku is set to play at Wembley after recovering from an ankle injury, and fellow Belgian Marouane Fellaini also hopes to be fit after a muscle strain.