In a bombshell seven-and-a-half-minute interview after Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with Leeds United last weekend, Mohamed Salah accused the club of throwing him “under the bus” and claimed he no longer has any relationship with head coach Arne Slot. The ‘Egyptian King’, who has scored 250 goals for Liverpool over the last eight years and was the driving force behind the 2024-25 Premier League title success under Slot, didn’t see a single minute of action at Elland Road after being named on the bench for the third game in a row, and decided to go public with his grievances.
Salah only signed a new two-year contract in April, but the “hurt” forward is now being heavily linked with a January switch to the Saudi Pro League, with Slot having suggested that he will not be reintegrated into the first team unless he apologises. Liverpool were already in the midst of a crisis after a disastrous start to their title defence, with Salah among those who have allowed their standards to dip significantly, but the noise around Anfield is near deafening now, and it remains to be seen if a harmonious resolution can be reached that helps the Reds salvage their campaign.
It has to be said, though, that dressing room bust-ups like this are nothing new. Below, GOAL goes through the most infamous rows between managers and players in modern football…
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Getty/GOAL compositeSir Alex Ferguson vs David BeckhamPerhaps 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..png?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=3840&quality=60)
Getty/GOAL compositeJose Mourinho vs Paul PogbaIn 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 Sky Sports: “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.”.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=3840&quality=60)
GettyPep Guardiola vs Zlatan IbrahimovicThe 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.”
