Football top 10 training camp bust-ups.
By Jacob Steinberg.
Portsmouth players David Nugent and Marc Wilson were sent home from Portsmouth’s Portuguese training camp after the pair apparently came to blows in a hotel corridor.
But it is not the first time a relaxing trip away has given the manager a whole lot of unwanted stress. Here is Mirrorfootball.co.uk’s rundown of the Top 10 training camp bust-ups…
1) Roy Keane v Mick McCarthy, World Cup 2002
Roy Keane's willingness to speak his mind could get him into all sorts of trouble.
Unhappy with what he felt were amateur preparations for the World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002, Keane told the Irish Times: "You've seen the training pitch and I'm not being a prima donna. Training pitch, travel arrangements, getting through the bloody airport when we were leaving, it's the combination of things. I would never say 'that's the reason or this is the reason', but enough is enough."
Ireland boss Mick McCarthy was furious with his captain and the pair were soon embroiled in a heated argument in front of a stunned squad. Keane's cutting dismissal of McCarthy is now famous. "I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a f****** w***** and you can stick your World Cup up your a***. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your b*******," he stormed.
Unsurprisingly, that outburst got Keane kicked out of the training camp in Saipan and the Manchester United captain quit international football.
2) Leicester's Callum Davidson and Dennis Wise, pre-season tour of Finland in 2002
Sir Alex Ferguson once said Dennis Wise could start a fight in an empty room. Wise is possibly the only man alive who could take this as a compliment, so perhaps he was trying to impress Ferguson further when he somehow managed to start a fight with a sleeping man. All slap, no tickle, was Dirty Den.
On a pre-season tour of Finland in 2002, Wise became involved in a row with a Leicester team-mate over a game of cards and Davidson stepped in to calm the pair. Keen to settle a score, Wise later entered Davidson's hotel room and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and jaw. Wise was sent back to England and sacked by Leicester.
Leicester were initially forced to re-instate him before a high court ruled they could sack the former Chelsea captain. Wise swiftly indulged in a spot of self-parody by signing for ... Millwall.
3) Liverpool's Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise, Algarve, 2007
Dressing rooms must be a fraught world when even karaoke can end in tears before bed-time. Rafa Benitez had taken Liverpool on a bonding trip to the Algarve to prepare for a daunting Champions League match against Barcelona.
After five days in Portgual, Benitez allowed his players a night out to let their hair down but the drunken festivities soon took an ugly turn. Craig Bellamy became irritated by Riise's refusal to sing in a karaoke competition and the pair had to be separated by their team-mates. As tempers calmed, the group headed back to their rooms apart from Bellamy, who allegedly took a golf swing at Riise’s legs.
Amazingly both scored as Liverpool beat Barcelona 2-1 at Camp Nou, Bellamy pretending to swing an imaginary golf club after his goal.
4) Alan Shearer and Keith Gillespie, 1997 in Ireland
During a break in Dublin, Newcastle's players went out on the town, a certain recipe for disaster. Even the seemingly sensible Phillipe Albert ended up a shambling mess, frolicking around like an inebriated student with a traffic cone on his bonce.
Alan Shearer and Keith Gillespie, meanwhile, went down a more sinister route. Gillespie spent his night flicking bottle tops at the Newcastle captain, a stunt that didn't go down too well according to team mate David Batty. “Al was saying, 'Do that one more time and I'll give you a good hiding,’” Batty later revealed.
But the barrage didn’t stop, the squabblers headed outside and then there was a pair of legs in the air. “We ran out to see Gillespie spark out in the gutter. There was blood everywhere,” recalled Batty. “Allegedly, Keith had taken a swing as the two made their way towards the rear of the pub and Al had turned and decked him.”
5) Freddie Ljungberg and Olof Mellberg, World Cup 2002
At a time when mild-mannered Sven Goran Eriksson was still charming England, the news that Swedes could see red came as a surprise. Olof Mellberg and Freddie Ljungberg were the culprits, falling out as the team prepared for the World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002.
Ljungberg reacted badly to strong tackling by Mellberg, with the pair pictured at each other's throats and brawling on the floor before team-mates separated them. “It's forgotten now,” Ljungberg said as he left the pitch.
Or perhaps not. Another fight was avoided at the 2006 World Cup but after a 0-0 draw in Sweden's opening game against Trinidad and Tobago, Ljungberg got his own back. “We played much too many long balls from Mellberg up to our attackers,” he sniffed.
6) Stan Collymore, Leicester, La Manga, 2000
Listening to Stan Collymore's intelligent punditry, it is easy to forget how he wasted his career. Despite being hugely talented, the nomadic striker was never far from controversy, not least on Leicester's mid-season trip to La Manga in 2000.
Martin O'Neill had taken a massive gamble by signing Collymore in 2000 and his faith was not exactly rewarded on this particular trip. While enjoying what was no doubt a quiet drink in a bar, Collymore decided to enliven proceedings by setting off a fire extinguisher. The entire team were kicked out and Leicester were forced to consider whether to sack Collymore after a mere week at the club.
Instead he was fined two weeks' wages, warned about his conduct and told to do community service. He also paid a share of the costs of the Spanish trip, including a £700 bill for damage to the bar area. A few weeks later he scored a stunning hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Sunderland. A tale of what could have been.
7) Paolo Di Canio and Fabio Capello, China, 1994
One of football's more combustible characters, Paolo Di Canio crossed paths with Fabio Capello at AC Milan in the mid-90s. They rarely saw eye to eye and matters came to a head on Milan's pre-season tour of the Far East in 1996. During a friendly against minor opposition, Di Canio was taken off to “maintain the tactical equilibrium”, in Capello's words.
In the next friendly, Milan took a 1-0 lead and again Di Canio was removed in favour of a defender. Di Canio confronted his manager at half-time, furiously asking why he had been substituted. Capello did not try to smooth things over, instead lunging at Di Canio and having to be held back by his coaching staff. Enraged, the Milan boss then ordered Di Canio to leave the ground.
“You're not going to tell me what to do. Whether I go back to the hotel or not, it's up to me, it's my decision. You're going to stop deciding things for me!” Di Canio raved. “One thing is for sure, I'm not going to hang around here and look at your penis face any longer!” He got his wish, with Celtic his next port of call.
8] Edgar Davids and Guus Hiddink, Euro 96
Dutch training camps have regularly been feisty and Euro 96 lived up to that reputation. In a talented squad, containing the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert, racial tensions ran high between the black and white players, and caused numerous splits.
As matters became worse, Edgar Davids went on the radio to lambast the manager Guus Hiddink, saying: “Hiddink must take his head out of players' asses so he can see better.” The comments caused a heated argument on the training ground, before Hiddink axed Davids from the squad. Holland missed Davids' all-action style though, losing 4-1 to England before limply exiting the tournament to France in the quarter-finals.
9) Jean-Francois Larios and Michel Platini, World Cup 1982
A squad in the build-up to a World Cup can be a real pressure cooker – and when rumours surface that your team mate has copped off with your missus, there is no place to hide.
That is what happened to Michel Platini in 1982, with Jean-Francois Larios the rumoured lover.
Larios was forced to leave the squad due to the rumours while Platini drove France on to the last four, where they lost to West Germany. Undoubtedly an embarrassing moment in French history, but still a bit more classy than a sex tape in Ayia Napa...
10) Joey Barton, Richard Dunne and an Everton fan, Thailand 2005
A top 10 of bad behaviour just would not be complete without the name of Joey Barton. On a pre-season trip to Thailand with Manchester City, Barton disgraced himself by getting into a fight with a 15-year-old Everton fan in the team hotel.
The young Everton fan had verbally abused Barton and kicked his shin, which led to Barton slapping him. When his captain Richard Dunne tried to break it up, Barton promptly bit the Irishman's finger. Barton was sent home from Thailand, fined £120,000 and ordered to undergo counselling for drink and anger problems.
