The Man Utd mutiny and five teams torn apart by in-fighting
Cameron Smith
- Updated: 16 Aug 2022 00:13 BST
- 6 min read
A harmonious dressing room underpins every success story in sport, and especially football. A long and gruelling season requires team spirit and a willingness to work for your team-mates in order to achieve greatness.
While the best teams in history have all displayed traits of team bonding and commitment, there are several examples of teams who fall at this hurdle, making success almost impossible. It usually is surrounded by a period of difficulty on the pitch, with tensions rising and ultimately tensions flaring.
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Manchester United’s 2022-23 squad have become another example of such a mutiny, with their squad reportedly experiencing in-fighting after a poor start to the 2022-23 Premier League season.
FootballTransfers lists five teams torn apart by in-fighting.
Manchester United - 2022
With a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion and a humiliating 4-0 loss away to Brentford, Erik ten Hag endured a woeful start to life as Man Utd manager, with his side bottom of the Premier League after two fixtures.
After the defeat to Thomas Frank’s Brentford, it emerged that a training ground bust-up had occurred just days before the game. According to Manchester Evening News, there was a huge dressing room argument within the squad two days before the loss at the Brentford Community Stadium.
Ten Hag’s decision to keep Harry Maguire as captain reportedly didn’t go down well, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to leave the club hasn’t helped; some players even want him to leave the club in order to improve the atmosphere surrounding the club.
Alex Telles, who has been loaned to Sevilla for the 2022-23 season, and Hannibal Mejbri were also involved in a training ground spat in May 2022.
Chelsea - 2015
After winning the Premier League in the 2014-15 season under Jose Mourinho, the Blues fell out of contention rapidly in the following year, with relegation even looking a slight possibility when the Portuguese manager left with them in 16th place, one point above the relegation zone, in December 2015.
Issues began on matchday one when Mourinho slammed club doctor Eva Carneiro for treating Eden Hazard on the pitch after the Belgian went down injured. With Carneiro on the pitch it meant Hazard had to leave the field before returning, which angered Mourinho as Chelsea were drawing 2-2 with Swansea and had already seen Thibaut Courtois sent off.
That incident soon spiralled into dressing room pandemonium with Mourinho losing the support of his players. It’s believed that Nemanja Matic, Cesar Azpilicueta and Oscar are among the players to have been dressed down in front of the rest of the group while other players were said to have been treated poorly by Mourinho.
The following season Chelsea won the Premier League under the management of Antonio Conte.
France - 2010
Just four years after finishing as runners-up in the World Cup, France had a tournament to forget in South Africa as their bid to go one better than in 2006 came crashing to a halt with a group stage exit and mass controversy.
Manager Raymond Domenech was not well-liked by the French population, but he managed to hold onto his job for the 2010 World Cup despite only qualifying via a play-off win over the Republic of Ireland, the game in which Thierry Henry infamously handled the ball before squaring to William Gallas to secure qualification.
Then Patrick Vieira, Samir Nasri and Karim Benzema all weren’t selected in the squad, while the unproven Yann M’Vila and Mathieu Valbuena made the cut. That decision wasn’t popular within the French public, and before the tournament even began things began to unravel.
Chelsea’s Florent Malouda had to be held back from attacking Domenech by Manchester United’s Patrice Evra after an argument, which saw Malouda benched for their opening game. After their opening game 0-0 draw with Uruguay, former captain Zinedine Zidane admitted he believed that Domenech had lost control of the team, even saying he was “not a coach.”
Then Nicolas Anelka was hooked at half-time in France’s 2-0 loss to Mexico after it emerged that he and Domenech engaged in a row during the half-time break. Anelka then refused to apologise and was sent home from the tournament.
The next day, captain Evra had to be pulled away from fitness coach Robert Duverne before he stormed to the team bus. The rest of the squad followed suit and eventually emerged with a letter saying: “All of the players without exception want to declare their opposition to the decision taken by the FFF to exclude Nicolas Anelka from the squad.”
They lost their final group game and exited the tournament. Incoming manager Laurent Blanc set his stall by banning the entire World Cup squad from France’s next fixtures and the key players in the mutiny were given bans depending on their level of involvement.
Real Madrid - Under Jose Mourinho
This is another mutiny involving Mourinho. The Portuguese manager butted heads with several players during his time in charge of Real Madrid, including Cristiano Ronaldo, but the most notable disagreement came with Iker Casillas.
According to Casillas himself, the ex-Los Blancos manager “accused me [Casillas] of being a friend of the press,” and he was therefore seen as a mole.
Casillas was dropped by Mourinho in December 2012, despite being recognised as one of the world’s best goalkeepers, before he restored his place over the next few months. However, an injury ruled Casillas out and the day after that injury occurred, Marca ran a front page saying Casillas, Sergio Ramos and one other player went to Florentino Perez to say either Mourinho leaves or they do. This was denied by Perez, but Casillas’ girlfriend admitted there were internal problems at the club.
In 2011, there was even a player’s strike as admitted by Casillas. He revealed: “As the captain, I spoke to my team-mates and we decided that we weren't going to play which meant the opening games of the season wouldn't go ahead. "We said a couple of things that neither of us liked and took it badly but it was left there. Then came the Super Cup. “We gave a terrible impression. There were scraps, battles, giving your heart and soul… but the other things (poking Tito Vilanova’s eye) - that was the kind of thing you might see at other clubs - tacky clubs, who need to resort to that sort of thing, and that is not for us."
Newcastle - 1999
Ruud Gullit arrived as Newcastle manager with a CV to match anyone ever to play the game. However, his time in the dugout didn’t go as smoothly during his stint at St James’ Park.
The Dutchman may have led Newcastle to the 1999 FA Cup final, but he subsequently lost the faith of the dressing room and his stay ended after clashing with key players.
The Dutchman first fell out with captain Robert Lee and then Alan Shearer.
According to Nobby Solano: “Ruud Gullit did not have the experience to deal with the personalities in the dressing room at the time.” Gullit may have handed debuts to youngsters Paul Robinson and Jamie McClen, but he sidelined established stars such as John Barnes and Stuart Pearce. Solano also admitted: "Ruud tried to change everything too quickly, he tore it up in a few months."
The spat with Shearer ended with Gullit benching him for their derby against Sunderland, with Newcastle losing 0201. Just three days later, Gullit resigned with pressure mounting.
Read more about: La Liga, World Cup, Premier League, Chelsea, France, Man Utd, Newcastle Utd., Real Madrid
