From flying boots to striking superstars, GOAL runs through the most infamous personality clashes in the modern game
There was some hope when Ruben Amorim succeeded Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager in November that he might help Marcus Rashford rediscover his best form. However, the forward's days at Old Trafford now appear to be numbered, with the new Portuguese boss having made it painfully clear that he has no interest in even working with a player that publicly expressed his interest in finding a new club just two days after being left out of the squad for the Manchester derby on December 15 for behavioral reasons.
Indeed, Amorim even joked after the 1-0 win at Fulham on January 26 that he'd rather play United's 63-year-old goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital than bring Rashford back into his starting line-up. That quip has only generated more noise around the club, but it has to be said that such dressing-room dust-ups are nothing new – especially at Old Trafford.
Below, GOAL throughs the most infamous rows between managers and players in modern football…
Getty/GOAL composite Sir Alex Ferguson vs David Beckham
Perhaps the most infamous manager-player feud of all time. With Manchester United trailing 2-0 at half-time in a 2003 FA Cup tie against bitter rivals Arsenal, Sir Alex Ferguson dished out a few angry words during the interval.
At one point, he singled out David Beckham, who the United boss believed had been taking his foot off the pedal as he closed in on a move to Real Madrid. As Ferguson approached the player, he kicked a boot into his face, with the resulting cut requiring several stitches.
The next day, photos of Beckham's wound was all over the newspapers. Ferguson revealed in his autobiography that the incident convinced him he was losing control of the dressing room and he implored the board to sell the midfielder as soon as possible. They duly obliged, with Beckham moving to Santiago Bernabeu that summer.
AdvertisementGetty/GOAL composite Jose Mourinho vs Paul Pogba
In the immediate months following Paul Pogba's big-money return to Old Trafford, his relationship with manager Jose Mourinho was all sunshines and rainbows. However, during the 2017-18 season, the mask began to slip.
At the beginning of the following season, Mourinho took the vice-captaincy off the player. The decision came after months of reports that the pair's relationship had become irrevocably damaged, with the duo clashing on the training ground in a video captured in September 2018.
Mourinho was sacked soon after, but that was not the end of the feud. In April 2021, after the Portuguese had taken over at Tottenham, Pogba launched a scathing attack on his former manager, telling : "Once I had a great relationship with Mourinho. Everybody saw that and the next day you don’t know what happened. That’s the strange thing I had with Mourinho and I cannot explain to you because even I don’t know."
Mourinho did not accept Pogba's version of events, though, replying: "I would like to say that I couldn't care less with what he says. I am not interested at all."
GettyPep Guardiola vs Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The biggest personality clash in the history of the game? It could well be.
In theory, Zlatan Ibrahimovic should have made Pep Guardiola's brilliant Barcelona side even better when he joined the treble-winners from Inter in 2009, and the early signs were promising. Guardiola has even acknowledged himself that the towering and technically gifted forward was "excellent" for the first half of the season. The problem was that their relationship completely collapsed during the second half of the campaign.
Ibrahimovic had never felt quite at home in what he perceived as a school-like set-up at Barca in which everyone obeyed the man he sarcastically referred to as ‘The Philosopher’, and the outspoken Swede began to throw tantrums after effectively losing his starting spot to Lionel Messi, whom Guardiola decided to deploy as a 'false nine'. Ibrahimovic even accused the Catalan coach of having "no balls" and "sh*tting himself" in front of Jose Mourinho when Barca faced Inter in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
While Guardiola has since refused to throw any more fuel on the fire, Ibrahimovic has never shied away from blaming the former Blaugrana boss for him spending just one season at Camp Nou before returning to San Siro – only this time to play for AC Milan.
"The problem wasn’t with me, it was with him, and he never came to terms with it," Ibrahimovic subsequently stated. "I don’t know what his problem was with me."
Getty ImagesRoberto Mancini vs Mario Balotelli
"I can understand [if some players are frustrated]. I told [Mario Balotelli] that if you played with me 10 years ago I give to you every day maybe one punch in your head. But there are different ways to help guys like Mario."
That was how Roberto Mancini summed up working with Balotelli at Manchester City, with the pair colliding on more than one occasion. Even if the manager did keep faith in the centre-forward through a lot of the chaos, with his favouritism even frustrating some members of the squad, this was certainly a love-hate relationship.
During a pre-season friendly against LA Galaxy in 2011, the Italian coach dragged the striker off after he bizarrely attempted – and missed – an audacious backheel, instead of tapping the ball into an empty net. In January 2013, the odd couple even came to blows on the training ground after the striker put in a crunching tackle on team-mate Gael Clichy.
Then, in 2023 when Mancini was Italy manager, and ignored the good form of Balotelli to call up uncapped, Argentina-born striker Mateo Retegui, the then-FC Sion striker appeared to aim a jibe at his ex-City boss on Instagram. There's clearly no love lost between the pair.
