Sergio Conceicao has claimed that Mikel Arteta insulted his family during Tuesday’s Arsenal-Porto clash, but his history casts doubt on the allegation.
Following Arsenal’s penalty-shootout win over FC Porto, Sergio Conceicao went to the media to claim that Mikel Arteta had insulted his family.
“It’s not important, he addressed the bench in Spanish, the same happened with Guardiola,” Conceicao claimed.
“In the end, I just said that the one he insulted is no longer with us and that he should worry about coaching his team better, because they can do much better.”
Ignoring for a moment that an insult directed at “the bench” is not necessarily an insult targeting a specific person, various Arsenal sources have been very clear that this did not happen.
Arsenal insistent that Mikel Arteta did not insult Sergio Conceicao’s family.
— James Benge (@jamesbenge) March 13, 2024
This isn’t the first time Conceicao has made such a claim. Back in 2020, after his Porto side lost to Manchester City, the manager said something similar about Pep Guardiola.
“He spoke about our country using ugly words,” Conceicao claimed then. “Guardiola’s attitude was extremely unpleasant.”
Then in 2021, after his Porto side were eliminated by Chelsea, Conceicao said of Thomas Tuchel: “I was insulted by this man who is next door.
“I heard some insults, but it’s gone … it’s not pretty and my irritation in the end had to do with it.”
A common factor between all three incidents is that Porto hadn’t got the result they wanted on the night, either losing or being eliminated from the Champions League.
Conceicao has a very bad reputation in Portugal, where he’s been sent off 14 times with Porto alone, including four times last season. Across his career, he’s up to 24 red cards.
Those familiar with Portuguese football speak of the manager being a “sore loser” and someone who isn’t above resorting to insults of his own when things go wrong for him.
Perhaps all managers really do save special insults for their encounters with Conceicao, and maybe Arteta’s alleged insult towards “the bench” really was specifically aimed at the manager himself. But he’s made himself a very unreliable witness.