Mohamed Salah vs Arne Slot and the most infamous player-manager bust-ups in football history

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.

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 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."

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."

"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.

The feud so bitter and divisive it spawned its own Wikipedia page. The 'Saipan incident' stemmed from Roy Keane's explosive reaction to what he deemed to be inadequate preparations from the FAI ahead of Ireland's 2002 World Cup campaign.

The combative midfielder aired his (many) grievances to The Irish Times, which understandably irritated manager Mick McCarthy. When the interview was published, Keane's coach questioned him about it, and the midfielder's response was legendary.

"Mick, you're a liar… You're a f*cking w*nker. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a f*cking w*nker and you can stick your World Cup up your a**e. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your b*llocks."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Keane exited the camp soon after, which led to all hell breaking loose back home in Ireland. Despite the intervention of then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the midfielder's chances of returning were extinguished when he opted to give an interview to the Mail on Sunday in which he claimed his squad-mates had lower standards than him.

More recently, the two men appeared to bury the hatchet when their respective Championship sides squared off. But the incident will still go down as the most explosive saga in Irish footballing history.

Keane and Ferguson are two of the most legendary figures in United history, but an issue as trivial as a holiday villa caused the pair's relationship to fray at the edges back in 2005. The Irishman was supposedly unhappy about the condition of the house allocated to him, his wife and their five children for the club's pre-season training trip to Portugal. However, the United boss did not agree, feeling that Keane was being unnecessarily difficult.

The split between the duo only widened when Keane slammed his team-mates during an un-broadcasted MUTV interview following a dismal away defeat to Middlesbrough. When the video was shown to the squad, with their captain present, several of them took exception to his harsh words, but he would not back down.

"What I noticed about him that day as I was arguing with him was that his eyes started to narrow, almost to wee black beads. It was frightening to watch - and I’m from Glasgow," Ferguson recalled while launching his autobiography.

Shortly after, Keane would depart the club, with the two men continuing to trade blows in the media in the years that followed.

When Inter signed Ricardo Quaresma in 2008, Mourinho soon made it clear that he planned to turn the famously free-spirited wideman into a more disciplined operator. It's safe to say the experiment didn't work, with the coach stating just a few months into his Nerazzurri career: "He will have to learn, otherwise he won't play, and I am sure he'll change and become more tactically disciplined. He likes kicking the ball with the outside of his foot, but if you ask me about him in a few months' time, we'll be talking about a different Quaresma."

After a frightfully disappointing start to life in Milan, Quaresma was shipped out on loan to Chelsea. That didn't worked out either and the following season, he once again barely featured as Mourinho led Inter to a famous treble.

As evidenced by a recent interview with Portuguese newspaper Publico, it's clear the trivela-specialist does not have many fond memories of his time at San Siro. "My happiness and self-confidence were taken away from me. At one point I wasn't even called-up any more. I felt on the margins of the squad and woke up crying when I had to attend training sessions," he said.

"I still haven't understood some things that happened with him [Mourinho]. As soon as I arrived in Milan, it was made clear to me that I was only signed because Mourinho wanted me. Then, suddenly, I stopped playing. It's true I wasn't at my physical peak and watching the games back on television I didn't even recognise myself, but if a coach requests you and then doesn't help in your time of need... "

France are no strangers to a tournament implosion, but their squad-wide feud against manager Raymond Domenech at the 2010 World Cup was impressive even by their own standards. The root of the tension was Nicolas Anelka, who was reported to have told his coach to "go f*ck yourself you son of a wh*re" during the half-time interval of Les Bleus' defeat to Mexico.

He has since strongly denied shouting those words, with Domenech backing up his story, but there was still a serious falling out, with Anelka being sent home after that game. This decision led to the squad refusing the train until clear-the-air talks were held.

The damage had already been done, though, with France losing their final game and crashing out at the group stage. Anelka would later receive an 18-game ban from international matches and would not play for his country again.

Pep Guardiola effectively forcing Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona in order to bring in Zlatan Ibrahimovic - at great additional expense too - must rank as the worst trade of all time.

Guardiola had tried to offload the Cameroonian immediately after taking over as Barca boss in 2008 but the striker stayed, and helped the club win a first treble, scoring the opening goal in the Champions League final win over Manchester United in Rome. However, Pep still wanted to get rid of Eto'o and refused to explain precisely why. "There is not a single major reason for this decision," he said. "It is a matter of feeling and sensations."

Eto'o was less than happy, and much more forthcoming when it came to discussing the circumstances surrounding his exit, revealing that he had taken exception to Guardiola’s alleged arrogance. "I first of all reminded Guardiola that he'd never been a great player," he later claimed. "He was a good player, that's true. But, as a coach, he had proven nothing."

Unsurprisingly, their relationship went downhill from there - despite Barca's on-field success.

"Xavi told me the club wanted me to stay but that I had to talk to Pep," Eto'o explained. "I said 'Never: if someone does not respect me, I do not respect them.' He shook hands with me when I was at Inter and I played against Barca, but this was just for the cameras and TV. Behind the scenes before the match, he did not greet me."

Perhaps Guardiola simply realised he'd made a huge mistake. Whereas he fell out with Ibrahimovic inside six months, Eto'o won a second consecutive treble after clicking with Inter boss right away.

In April 2020, Mourinho attracted headlines when he summoned several of his Tottenham players for an impromptu fitness session on Monken Hadley Common at the height of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

“On a scale of one to 10, how surprised was I?” Tanguy Ndombele recalled to The Guardian a year later. “Honestly? Ten. I asked why I should have to run and he said I just had to do it. So it was nothing, really. Afterwards he congratulated me and said that I’d run well.”

Mourinho might have been impressed with his enigmatic midfielder on that occasion, but generally their relationship was extremely rocky. Just a month before that infamous public training session, the Spurs boss had called out the player publicly after a disappointing draw with Burnley.

“In the first half we didn’t have a midfield,” he said. "I have to say he [Ndombele] has had enough time to come to a different level. I know the Premier League is difficult and some players take a long time to adapt to a different league. But a player with his potential has to give us more than he is giving us, especially when you see how Lucas [Moura], [Gio] Lo Celso and those players are playing. I was expecting more in the first half from him."

Ndombele barely played when the Premier League restarted, and although Mourinho eventually softened his stance on the Frenchman, he was sacked before the player could make a proper return to the fold.

While Mancini was pretty forgiving of Balotelli's antics, he was less understanding when it came to Carlos Tevez. Their feud stemmed from an incident in September 2011, when the Argentine refused to be subbed on during a Champions League match away at Bayern Munich.

After the incident, Tevez went home to Argentina where he even considered retiring. Eventually, though, he returned to the fold the following February, helping City secure their maiden Premier League title. Speaking to the club's website in 2022, he finally gave his side of the tale.

"I said if [Mancini] wanted me to, I was ready to go on, but I wasn't going to keep warming-up as I had spent about 35 minutes warming-up already. And from there, it was back and forth between us. A bit in English, another bit in Spanish, another in Italian... and I believe words were misunderstood.

"Because I was telling him in the heat of the moment, he only understood the things that he wanted to. I just wanted to know if he was going to use me or not, and it's not about who was right or wrong. It was all about trying to get him to put himself in my shoes."

Cristiano Ronaldo had re-established himself as the main man at Manchester United again after his surprise return in 2021, scoring 24 goals across all competitions in his first season back. It was, however, a miserable campaign for United, who slumped to a sixth-placed finish, despite the best efforts of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.

Erik ten Hag was brought in from Ajax to oversee a revolution in the summer of 2022, and it quickly became clear that Ronaldo would not be a leading figure in his plans. The Portuguese only started four of United's first 14 league games during Ten Hag's debut season, which he saw as an unacceptable situation. He made headlines for storming down the tunnel before the end of a 2-0 home win over Tottenham, but that was nothing compared to what came next.

In mid-November, Ronaldo unleashed a furious tirade against Ten Hag and United in a remarkable interview with Piers Morgan, saying he felt "betrayed" by the club. "I don’t have respect for him because he doesn’t show respect for me," he said when pressed on his relationship with Ten Hag. "If you don’t have respect for me, I’m never gonna have respect for you."

A few days later, the then-37-year-old left Old Trafford as his contract was terminated by mutual consent. Ten Hag eventually came out to deliver his side of the story, telling UK media: "When a player definitely doesn't want to be in this club then he has to go. The interview was the first time he said he wanted to leave. I think as a club you can't accept that. There will be consequences." 

The Dutchman added in a thinly-veiled parting shot at Ronaldo: "When he is in good shape, he is a good player, and he could help us to get back and achieve the objectives we have. That is quite clear. But he wasn't."

United went on to finish third without the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, and end a five-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League. Ronaldo may have won the battle, but Ten Hag won the war.

Manchester United were absolutely desperate to sign Jadon Sancho and finally snapped up the English prodigy from Borussia Dortmund in July 2021 for £74m ($92m). However, the winger struggled terribly to justify his sky-high price tag. Things just didn't click consistently under Solskjaer, and interim boss Rangnick could not get the best out of him either. However, Sancho's United career stooped to even greater lows under Ten Hag.

After missing a sizeable chunk of the 2022-23 campaign due to "mental and physical struggles", the hope was that Sancho would get back to something approaching his best the following season. However, things came to a head after he was left out of the matchday squad entirely for his side's 3-1 loss to Arsenal on September 3, 2024.

During his post-match press conference, Ten Hag explained that Sancho's omission was a result of his training performances, leading to the 23-year-old hitting back at his manager after the game on social media.

"Please don't believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue, I have conducted myself in training very well this week. I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won't go into, I've been a scapegoat for a long time which isn't fair," Sancho wrote in a post that effectively ended his Old Trafford career.

United announced on September 14 that Sancho would train "away from the first-team group pending resolution of a squad discipline issue", but he would never play for Ten Hag's United again. Sancho, who refused to apologise for his comments, spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on loan to former club Dortmund before joining Chelsea on an obligation-to-buy deal last summer.

Completing Mourinho's quartet of feuds - although we could have included a few more, of course - is his long-running battle with Luke Shaw at Old Trafford. Although the defender featured fairly regularly during 'The Special One's' time in the United hot seat, he received several rounds of public criticism.

After a 25-minute cameo during his side's 1-1 draw with Everton in April 2017, Mourinho claimed that Shaw had played with "his brain", such was the level of detailed tactical instruction he was giving on the touchline. These comments came just a few days before he questioned the player's "focus and ambition" and stated that he was a "long way behind" United's other left-back options at the time.

Mourinho's jibes did not halt after his United sacking either, as he criticised Shaw's set-piece taking while working as a pundit. The England international looked back on the pair's tricky relationship in an interview with SportBible in 2021, saying: "A lot of the things that happened between us two, sometimes he went about it in the right way. I think a lot of people will agree with that at the club.

"Our relationship wasn't the best. It was probably quite easy to see that from the outside. But one thing Jose did do was make me mentally much stronger. I think mental strength is what I would describe that period under Jose Mourinho.

"I think I felt part of the team under Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer], whereas under Jose sometimes I didn't. Ole showed his belief and confidence in me. I always believed good times were coming. I stuck in and dug deep; went through a lot but came out better on the other side."

There was some hope when Ruben Amorim succeeded Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager in November 2024 that he might help Marcus Rashford rediscover his best form. That did not prove to be the case, though, and the Portuguese boss made it painfully clear that he had no interest in even working with a player who publicly expressed his interest in finding a new club just two days after being left out of the squad for December's Manchester derby due to behavioural reasons.

Indeed, Amorim even joked after a 1-0 win at Fulham the following month that he'd rather play United's 63-year-old goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital than bring Rashford back into his starting line-up. He added when pressed on why Rashford had fallen to the bottom of the attacking pecking order: "The reason is the training, the way I see what a footballer should do in training, in life. It’s every day, every detail. If things don’t change, I will not change."

Five days later, the England international was loaned to Aston Villa, where he miraculously started playing with a smile on his face again. Rashford secured another loan move in the summer, this time to Barcelona, where he has since taken his resurgence up a notch, working alongside a host of world-class players.

In an interview with ITV Sport in October, Rashford cited an "inconsistent environment" as the main reason for his struggles at United. Amorim gave those comments the short shrift they deserved when told about them in a subsequent press conference, effectively ruling out Rashford ever returning under his watch: "I’m just focused on the future of the club, on the present of the club. That is the most important thing. So, I’m focused just on my players and what they say, what they do, that is my main focus."