Mohamed Salah’s row with Liverpool follows a long line of player-club spats – here are some of the most memorable
W
hen players break dressing-room code by airing their grievances publicly, the result is almost always the same: a breakdown of trust and an unceremonious exit. After Mohamed Salah became the latest to express his dissatisfaction, we look at the others whose explosive comments sealed their fate.
After Manchester United’s 4-1 defeat against Middlesbrough in October 2005, Keane recorded a segment for the club’s in-house TV channel, MUTV, titled Roy Keane Plays the Pundit. The interview was an incandescent, 30-minute tirade in which he shredded his own teammates for a lack of effort and character, shaming several players including Rio Ferdinand, who was at fault for the second goal. “Just because you are paid £120,000-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham you think you are a superstar,” the captain said. In his autobiography, Keane claimed he also said his wife could tackle better than Darren Fletcher. The video was so damaging that Alex Ferguson banned it from being aired and, two weeks later, Keane’s 13-season stint at United ended by mutual agreement.
In 2008, Gallas accused an unnamed Arsenal player of disrupting team morale and questioned the character of his younger teammates. He said the team needed to be “soldiers” and revealed dressing-room arguments, including a half-time dispute during a draw with Tottenham. The act of airing dirty laundry was seen as a betrayal of his leadership role; Arsène Wenger dropped the defender from the squad and stripped him of the captaincy. The two mended their relationship publicly but Gallas’s demands during his contract renewal were deemed too high and he left the club when his deal expired in 2010.
