5 Incidences When Players Were Attacked by Managers.

 Every now and then, we hear of bust-ups between players.Neymar vs Mbappe, Mane vs Sane, and the infamous Bowyer vs Dyer from years back. We’ve also heard of coaches going up against each other, remember Tuchel and Conte in the Premier League? But you know what we hardly hear of? Managers attacking players. But best believe, the fact that you don’t hear of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Things like this happen more often than you think, and we’ll discuss in this post.

Managers fighting with their players.

    These are 5 instances when players were attacked by managers. Let’s start with a recent occurrence involving Bayern star Leroy Sane and Union Berlin coach Nenad Bjelica. The clubs locked horns in the Bundesliga and it was a hard-fought game which Bayern ended up winning 1-nil. But a much bigger story came out of that game and it was Bjelica hitting Sane in the second half. The Union Berlin manager was holding on to the ball for a little too long for Sane’s liking, and when Sane tried to slap the ball out of the manager’s hand, Bjelica reacted by hitting the winger twice in quick succession, and he was instantly shown a red card for that. It was actually a crazy thing to see, but it wasn’t even the first time we had seen something like that. More than two decades ago, the world of football was rocked with an even worse incident, because this time around, Sir Alex Ferguson attacked his own player, not an opponent. The victim in this case was the golden boy David Beckham, and for those who don’t know, that was one of the biggest reasons Beckham left Manchester United in 2003. There’s no video evidence of this because it happened in the Man United dressing room, but the story went viral and has since been corroborated by people who witnessed this firsthand. It happened in February 2003, following a defeat to Arsenal in the FA Cup. Ferguson was furious with the result and particularly with Beckham, so when they got to the dressing room, he kicked a boot in the direction of the midfielder, and it caught him just above the eye. Beckham needed stitches for the cut and also needed stitches for his relationship with the boss because it was broken beyond repair after that incident. Unsurprisingly, Beckham left United 4 months later, and never looked back.Years later, we saw another fight between manager and player in Manchester, but this time around, it was in the blue half of the city.

Mario Balotelli and Roberto Mancini

    This happened while Roberto Mancini was coach of Man City, and which other player can bring out the worst side of Mancini if not Mario Balotelli? Balotelli is known for his bad boy persona, and his compatriot Mancini is a no-nonsense manager who had previously worked with Balotelli at Inter. These guys knew each other so well, but their personalities were always bound to clash the worse Balotelli got. Joleon Lescott, Balotelli’s Man City teammate at the time, once told a story of Mancini running down the tunnel to attack Balotelli while a match was on because the striker got himself sent off. Apparently, the kit man followed Mancini in and saw him fighting with Balotelli. And it’s not so hard to believe that because Mancini once made a statement that suggested he could indeed do something like this. In 2012, the former Italy boss had this to say about Balotelli: “I told him, if you played with me 10 years ago I would give you every day maybe one punch in your head.” Also, a decade ago, images of the pair going at it during training surfaced online. Crazy, isn’t it? But Balotelli is not the only Italian to be involved in something like this.

Louis Van Gaal and Luca Toni

Before him, there was Luca Toni who was attacked by Louis van Gaal at Bayern Munich. Even if you’re just getting to know LvG now, you can tell that he’s one who really knows how to beef with players. From Victor Valdes at United to Lionel Messi and we can even throw it all the way back to Riquelme. So, seeing him on this list is not surprising at all. The former Man United boss is obviously a very demanding manager, but you won’t believe what made him put his hands on Luca Toni when they both were at Bayern Munich in 2009. The reports were that van Gaal didn’t like Toni’s table manners, so he pulled him by his ears. Toni was a 32-year-old man and van Gaal did that to him? Come on! Anybody would have been pissed.

Unsurprisingly, Toni wasn’t at the club for much longer after that incident. He first left on loan in December 2009 and then permanently in the summer of 2010. Finally, we have Delio Rossi physically assaulting his own player Adem Ljajic in front of thousands of fans. This happened during a game for Fiorentina against Novara in 2012. Rossi took off Ljajic, and the player reacted by sarcastically applauding and giving a thumbs up to the coach. Rossi did not like this at all, so he pushed the player and attacked him on the bench. It wasn’t a pretty sight at all. It was so bad that staff and players had to come in to separate the pair. As expected, Rossi was sacked immediately after that game and was banned from the Serie A for 3 months. But interestingly, before that year even ran out, Rossi got a job. He was hired by Sampdoria, also in the Serie A. You just gotta love the Italian league, man!

Delio Rossi and Adem Ljajic

    Anyway, do you know of more incidences when managers have attacked players? Tell us in the comments. And of course, if you enjoyed this post must tell your opinion in comments.

Catch you in the next one.Bye!

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