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Football: A swift departure by one of the guilty parties is par for the course

footballers' Famous falling-outs

Olivia Blair
Saturday 07 March 1998 00:02 GMT
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SO, Keith Gillespie has, allegedly, joined Jimmy Hasselbaink on the list of players who have felt the full force of Alan Shearer's physical presence in recent weeks. The difference, of course, is that Hasselbaink's experience came on the pitch (during Leeds' draw at St James' Park) while Gillespie's occurred outside a Dublin bar during a golfing trip aimed, ironically, at fostering team-spirit among Newcastle's players.

Subsequent reports have hinted that Gillespie will be on his way out of St James' Park quicker than you can say head-lock. After all, there's no doubting whose side Kenny Dalglish would take, should it come to that.

However, footballers don't necessarily have to get on off the pitch to gel on it. In life, you don't actually have to like someone to appreciate their ability, and the same applies to football. Sure, it helps - research done in the 1980s proved that players pass more to their best mate than any other player - but it can hinder, too, in what a psychologist would call "social loafing'', but which in football would be better explained as the "Spice Boys phenomenon''.

In other words, you have to be focused individually as well as strong collectively, as Manchester United seem to be. As Ruud Gullit maintains, you don't have to be bosom buddies with your team-mates to play with them. "Glenn and I were not friends,'' Gullit has admitted of his erstwhile manager and team-mate, Glenn Hoddle. "You do not have to like them to play for them. But there must be respect.''

Mind you, Gullit should know. The Dutch are infamous past masters of the kind of in-house fighting that undermines team spirit and hampers collective potential. Like Johan Cruyff in 1978, Gullit refused to play in the 1994 World Cup, while Edgar Davids was sent home in an internecine row from Euro 96.

It was the latest in a litany of quarrels to upset the Dutch camp during major tournaments, but the strands of that particular argument run far deeper than most of the disputes between team-mates, which are generally nothing more than the proverbial handbags at 10 paces; the result of two highly competitive characters crossing swords in a (usually) highly charged environment.

They don't come much more highly charged than a Merseyside derby, which is probably why Bruce Grobbelaar almost throttled a then fledgling Steve McManaman after McManaman's poor clearance had gifted Everton a goal in September 1993; or than the Champions' League, especially given Blackburn's record at the time (they hadn't won a game and scored just once). Considering those circumstances, it's hardly surprising frustration turned to fisticuffs between David Batty and Graeme Le Saux when Blackburn visited Spartak Moscow in 1995.

It was similar heat of the moment stuff when Benito Carbone and David Hirst tangled during Sheffield Wednesday's 5-2 defeat by Derby this season, and when West Ham's John Moncur slapped Eyal Berkovitch during a game against Chelsea. Berkovitch later described Moncur as "the most jealous man I've ever met'', but lasting repercussions are usually rare. Craig Levein claims he bore no grudge against Graeme Hogg after the Hearts team- mates were sent off for scrapping during a pre-season "friendly'', despite the fact Levein was later stripped of the club captaincy.

He maintains these fracas "happen all the time, particularly in training when players get over-enthusiastic'', which is a view Stan Collymore might endorse. Collymore, who reputedly fell out so badly with his Nottingham Forest team-mates they refused to pass the ball to him, denies that Colin Cooper hit him for not pulling his weight, but admits hitting Alfe Inge Haland in training: "His studs went down my Achilles tendons half a dozen times,'' Collymore remembers. "When I asked him why, he told me to `eff off'. So I hit him once. But that's happened a thousand times at a thousand clubs. There was the thing with Robbie Fowler and Neil Ruddock when Razor hit Robbie 'cos Robbie cut up his trainers. But as soon as it happened it was over.''

The fact that Collymore soon left for Liverpool suggests the reality is somewhat different. In fact, a swift departure by one of the guilty parties tends to be par for the course. Hirst played just once more for Wednesday after tangling with Carbone; Le Saux couldn't wait to get on his bike back to Chelsea while Steve Lomas, who apparently clashed verbally and physically with Georgi Kinkladze during a Manchester City training session, was soon heading south to West Ham.

Mike Flanagan actually walked out of The Valley after falling out with his Charlton striking partner Derek Hales. The pair were sent off for fighting in an FA Cup tie at Maidstone in January 1979, and when Hales was sacked and then reinstated, Flanagan walked out and joined Crystal Palace (he later returned, but not before Hales had gone for good). Rumours that one was seeing the other's partner were unconfirmed.

It's doubtful that a post-match shandy would have settled that dispute, but it did the trick for Terry Venables and Dave Mackay after they clashed in Venables' first training session: "He hit me twice below the belt so I punched him smack in the face,'' recalls Venables, "but I had a ring on which damaged my knuckle and sliced his cheek open. All the boys jumped in to break us up but by then honours were about even.''

Of course, such scenarios are all part of the Crazy Gang's image, although there have been times when harmless horse-play turned sour. Keith Curle gave too much lip to big John Gayle and got a thick one in return (and was soon on his way to Manchester City), while John Fashanu karate-kicked Lawrie Sanchez. Sanchez didn't stay long at Wimbledon after that. After all, who would after tangling with Fash the Bash?

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