Nine of the biggest rows between players and their managers.
It’s inevitable that friction arises in the workplace between managers and their employees. There are egos involved, a lot of money, and frequently many parties believe they have the right answer to problems that need solving. However, while most of us will only have to face some office gossip, the names on this list had to bear the scrutiny of the watching world. Some appear more than once, but just who had the biggest fall out?
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9. Ruud Van Nistelrooy vs Marco Van Basten
The two had never seen eye-to-eye, and matters between them were made worse when Van Basten was appointed as manager of the Dutch national team. In 2006, Van Basten dropped the Real Madrid ace and relations quickly turned frosty. Van Nistelrooy quickly declared himself unavailable for selection, and was only convinced otherwise when tentative peace talks were brokered. However, things between the two were never friendly.
8. Wayne Rooney vs David Moyes
Rooney felt so let down by his former Everton boss that he made a number of allegations in his book ‘My Story So Far’ claiming that he felt Moyes was too overbearing and controlling. Rooney also felt that his confidence was betrayed when a private conversation was leaked and that facilitated his frosty exit to Manchester United. The two were forced to clear the air last season when Moyes was appointed United boss, but neither could do much to stop their season turning into a disaster.
7. Robbie Fowler vs Gerrard Houllier
Fowler first got on the wrong side of the Frenchman with his now infamous ‘line sniffing’ goal celebration, and Houllier quickly decided to bring in Emile Heskey to partner Michael Owen up front. Fowler, unhappy about his lack of game time, lost his temper in a meeting a fired a ball at assistant boss Phil Thompson. The England international was promptly sold to Leeds.
6. Carlos Tevez vs Roberto Mancini
During a Champions League tie against Bayern Munich in 2011, the Argentine forward decided that he would rather stay on the bench than get on the pitch in what turned out to be a 2-0 defeat for the Citizens. This left Mancini fuming, and he declared that Tevez was finished at the club. He disappeared back to Argentina with telling the club, and was only allowed back after crunch talks between the two had taken place.
5. Alan Shearer vs Ruud Gullit
Usually in incidents like these it’s the managers that come out on top – but not this time. When he took the reins at St James’ Park, former Dutch international Ruud Gullit wanted to play what he called ‘sexy football’. However, things didn’t quite work out that way, and in a desperate attempt to change things up Gullit dropped Shearer for the home game against arch-rivals Sunderland. This understandably, did not go well and Gullit was soon ushered out of the job. Years later Gullit would remark that Shearer was the most overrated player he’d ever seen.
4. David Ginola vs Gerard Houllier
Ginola may be widely celebrated in England, for in 1993 he was public enemy number one in his native France, when a misplaced cross facilitated Bulgaria scraping to USA 94 in their place. Houllier was so angry at Ginola that he refused to let the matter drop for years, and helped put a premature end to the player’s international career. Ginola eventually took Houllier to court citing slander and defamation, but it was thrown out in 2012.
3. Raymond Domenech vs France’s 2010 World Cup squad
Domenech not only managed to fall out with one player at the World Cup in South Africa, but the entire squad. During halftime of France’s group game with Mexico, Nicolas Anelka verbally attacked the manager with a vicious insult. Anelka was expelled from the squad, but that did not sit well with the rest of the team, who then refused to train and argued with the coaching staff at a training session viewed by the public. Domenech was soon dismissed from his post, and has still yet to really recover from the incident.
2. David Beckham vs Alex Ferguson
Following a defeat to Arsenal, Ferguson kicked a boot in the dressing room that managed to catch Beckham right in the face. The result left Becks with a noticeable cut and it was hard to deny that something had happened. Both parties denied that there was any malice in the incident, but Ferguson had been unhappy with Beckham’s lifestyle choices for years, and this was seen as the last straw before he left to join Real Madrid.
1. Roy Keane vs Mick McCarthy
Keane had several complaints heading into the 2002 World Cup ranging from their equipment not being up to standard to having coaching staff that struggled to lead the group properly. Upon hearing this, McCarthy decided to confront the Man United star in front of the rest of the squad. Big mistake. Keane let fly with one of the most vicious tirades ever heard in football (he even told McCarthy to ‘stick it up your b******’) before finding himself on the next flight home.
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