Jose Mourinho's ability to raise a press conference from the banal to the incendiary won him as many friends and admirers as it did enemies and critics during his time in England.
And barely six months in to his career in Italy, the Portuguese's outspoken commentary on the state of the local game has raised the shackles of peers, media and officials alike. Though the forces stood in opposition to him currently outnumber his supporters by some distance.
A running feud with Juventus and fellow former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri and an on screen argument with respected Sky Italia presenter Mario Sconcerti (above), following criticism for his finger to the lips celebration after Inter ground out a win over Udinese, announced his arrival in Serie A.
But the frosty relations with both the fourth estate and his immediate rivals plumed to new depths in the wake of Inter Milan's controversial 3-3 draw with Roma at the weekend.
Mourinho will face disciplinary action after he railed against criticism of his young striker Mario Balotelli, who went to ground under a weak challenge from Marco Motta to earn Inter a penalty - that Balottelli converted himself - when the scores were 3-1 to Roma and Inter's procession to a fourth straight Scudetto starting to look less comfortable that it had for some time.
In the wake of a fractious and ill-tempered game, Roma coach Luciano Spaletti has already been banned for one match for addressing the fourth official in a "provocative and insulting manner", while Roma were fined 8,000 euros after their fans racially abused Balotelli, who is of Ghanaian origin.
And Roma Midfielder Daniele De Rossi, too, is to be investigated after he said "if referees are allowed to make mistakes, I don't understand why they should always be made in the same direction".
The media, too, we quick to point to Inter's good fortune and in a league still reeling from the damaging calciopoli match-fixing scandal of 2006 the inference was that Mourinho's side were perhaps benefiting from an uneven playing field.
Mourinho, as you might expect, was not willing to let this slight pass, and reacted angrily with a remarkable tirade in which his scattergun approach saw verbal bullets firing in the direction of all his major rivals for the title.
"I don't like intellectual prostitution, I like intellectual honesty," Mourinho said. "I think that in the last days there has been a great intellectual manipulation, a great work to change and manipulate public opinion.
"No one talked about Juve, who won many points through referee mistakes."
After attacking Roma and Juventus Mourinho also had a dig at Milan and his rant has been the hot topic of Italian football ever since. Juventus, particularly sensitive to accusations of favouritism these days, went as far as to post a message of displeasure on their website.
"Juventus express their astonishment and disgust, asking Inter to publicly denounce these comments," it read. "With his statements, the Inter coach has not only shown a lack of respect for Juventus and their 14 million fans but to all of Italian football."
Mourinho, unsurprisingly, has so far remained unrepentant.
The former Chelsea manager has not enjoyed the same relationship with the Italian media as he did with their English counterparts. In England the young, dynamic coach was viewed as a breath of fresh air, a man unafraid to speak his mind and to hell with the consequences - in Italy he is simply viewed as arrogant.
But love him or loath him, there is never a dull moment with Mourinho, as the Italians are quickly learning.
Fabrizio Bocca, writing on daily la Repubblica, was not a lone voice in calling for calm. "Someone must end this bullfight," he wrote, "or for the next meeting of Juventus and Inter we may just as well start slapping each other, having run out of words."
A laudable sentiment, but the chances of Mourinho running out of words any time soon remain as distant as they ever have.
