Teammates turned Enemies

This past weekend showed just how important every game is to every player of every team in the Barclay's Premier League.  At the business end of the season the emotion, frustrations and passions of players run especially high.  Andy Carroll stormed off the St. James Park pitch after having a complete nightmare against his former club. As the 35 million pound man paced off the pitch and passed his manager to a chorus of ironic cheers, boo's and a few laughs he was swearing bloody murder for all to see.  The big man couldn't wait to get down the tunnel and rip his shirt off to be alone and bare in his desperation. 
There were 3 other incidents of frustration/passion/anger/desperation boiling over this weekend, but unlike Carroll, these players took their anguish out on a fellow teammates in what has become a more and more regular occurrence in the modern game and something more suitable to the ring than the pitch.


When talking of on the pitch combat between players there are always a few belters that spring to mind.

Kieron Dyer v Lee Bowyer - This is the best of the best. Two teammates going at it, swinging punches ripping shirts and getting sent off as they both have a good old tear up! 10/10

Bruce Grobbelaar v Steve McMananman - The curly haired winger gets to grips with the crazy Zimbabwean goalkeeper after whiffing a clearance and getting a torrent of abuse and a slap for his troubles. 8/10

John Hartson v Eyal Berkovic - Although this doesn't strictly count as it was only a training ground bust up (which are as common as muck) it's still a classic. Big John lets the little Israeli know what he thinks with his size 10. 7/10

(Sorry for the poor quality) 

Schumacher v Coke - It's not just in the Premiership where footballers get their knickers in a twist over the most simple of things, like who takes penalty's as Bury recently showed when their players had a good argument over a spot kick which was converted by the rightful kicker! 4/10

David Batty v Graham Le Saux - Le Saux liked a rumble, but probably picked the wrong man when he squared up to David Batty. Lucky for Le Saux this was on the pitch and not down a dark alley! 5/10

Ben Foster v Peter Odemwingie.

After being peppered all afternoon the ex-Manchester United and on loan from Birmingham keeper let the Nigerian know exactly what he thought about his defensive efforts (or lack of). This resulted in some hand bags with both players looking rather silly as they half arsed the physical nature of the arguement and instead gave dirty looks to get their message across.

4/10 - As bad as West Brom's defending

Roger Johnson v Wayne Hennessy.

Times are tough at the bottom. Welsh international Hennessy has been getting abused all season with a defence more interested in getting pissed up than stopping opposition players scoring (Johnson the Wolves Club Captain was sent home from training last month after turning up a little worse for wear and still half cut after a decent night out prior). Again, handbags, but the lanky Wolves center half didn't look dominating or over-powering in his 'dust up' against his keeper, which is in keeping with his performances at the back this season!

3/10 - As awful as Roger Johnson's defending

Mario Balotelli v Aleksandar Kolarov

This was my favourite by far. Super Mario (a hilarious and super entertaining individual in my opinion) having a go at Kolarov over who was going to take a few kick on the edge of the Sunderland box. Mancini looked bemused as he saw his players physically ripping the ball from each others hands, before Balotelli admitted defeat and sulked on the edge of the 18 as Kolarov bent his effort into the side netting for a goal kick. Balotelli will now, of course, feel justified for his actions as the Serbian missed and the Italian will have been overly confident that he would have buried it.
8/10 - For comedy reasons