Few ruptures destabilise a team like a public falling-out between player and manager. Across international tournaments and club dressing rooms, such confrontations have reshaped squads and careers.

The 2002 Saipan incident remains one of the most notorious cases, so notorious a film was made about it starring Steve Coogan. Roy Keane publicly confronted Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy over pre-tournament preparations in Saipan. The argument spilled out in a team meeting and exploded into a venomous outburst: “Mick, you’re a liar … you’re a f—– w—–,” Keane barked. “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—– w—– and you can stick your World Cup up your a—. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country!” Keane did not play at that World Cup and did not return to international duty until McCarthy’s dismissal.

At Manchester United tensions between David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson reached a physical flashpoint in February 2003 after an FA Cup fifth round defeat to Arsenal. Ferguson kicked a boot that struck Beckham above the eye, leaving a cut. Beckham wore a small plaster on his eyebrow at his next public appearance. The season ended with Beckham leaving Old Trafford for Real Madrid.

Zlatan Ibrahimović’s time at Barcelona collapsed after a dressing-room confrontation with Pep Guardiola following a Champions League semi-final defeat to Bayern Munich. “Guardiola was staring at me and I lost it,” Ibrahimović said. “I thought, ‘there is my enemy, scratching his bald head!’ “I yelled: ‘You haven’t got any b—-!’ and worse than that I added: ‘You can go to hell!’ I completely lost it, and you might have expected Guardiola to say a few words in response, but he’s a spineless coward.” Ibrahimović moved on loan to AC Milan and later completed a permanent transfer.

France’s 2010 World Cup campaign also featured a midgame bust-up. At halftime of the group defeat to Mexico, Nicolas Anelka allegedly told manager Raymond Domenech: “Go f— yourself, you son of a w—-.” He was substituted and subsequently sent home.

Finally, the Pogba-Mourinho relationship at Manchester United deteriorated after public disagreement over the team’s approach in 2018–19. Mourinho reportedly told Pogba he would never captain the Red Devils and later labelled him a “virus” that “kills the mentality of good, honest people.” Pogba was left out of a squad and Mourinho was sacked following a defeat to Liverpool.

Alejandro Garnacho has been unequivocal about his decision to leave Manchester United for Chelsea, describing the summer switch as a “step forwards.” When asked whether he regretted the way his Old Trafford exit unfolded, the winger replied in one word: “No.” He repeated the same one-word response to confirm he was not sad about leaving.

Garnacho’s final months under United manager Ruben Amorim were turbulent. He was dropped from the squad for a Manchester derby in December 2024 alongside Marcus Rashford. After working his way back into the side he finished his spell in frustration, publicly clashing with the boss over his omission from the Europa League final starting lineup. Months later a £40 million ($53.3 million) transfer to Chelsea completed the move.

The 21-year-old has had a mixed start at Stamford Bridge. In the Premier League he has made nine appearances, starting six of those games, and has contributed one goal and two assists. Those figures have not been eye-catching, but Garnacho has been clear that a change of environment mattered.

He singled out Blues manager Enzo Maresca for the role he believes the coach has played in his early progress. “I spoke with [Maresca before joining], he explained everything to me,” Garnacho said. “Now working together I think we are doing well, we are going to improve with time, it’s just three months. He trusts me.

“So that’s the most important [thing]—we have confidence and we are going to improve. The most important thing is confidence. He speaks with me every week and I think we’re going to be better—me as a player and the team all together, with time. We started the season three months ago so there’s confidence between manager and player.

“Sometimes in life you have to change things to maybe take a step forward or to improve as a player. It was the right moment, also the right club, so it was an easy decision.”

For now Garnacho’s stance is clear: the transfer was intended to move his career forward, and he expects both his individual form and the team’s fortunes to improve as trust grows between player and coach.

Wayne Rooney has described an “honest conversation” with José Mourinho that, he says, set the terms for his eventual departure from Manchester United in the summer of 2017. Rooney had first asked to leave six months earlier when he wanted to play more regularly.

Rooney recalled that by the time he turned 30 in October 2015 his level was slipping after having started regularly for club and country since the age of 17. When Mourinho arrived in 2016 and signed Zlatan Ibrahimović, Rooney recognised the changing pecking order.

“I started the season with Zlatan and I knew José only plays one up front,” he said. “In the first three or four games, he played the two of us and I knew as soon as I had a bad game that I wasn’t going to play and Zlatan was going to be the forward.” Rooney began the campaign in a supporting role behind Ibrahimović against Bournemouth, Southampton, Hull City, Manchester City and Watford.

Competition from Juan Mata for the No. 10 role, combined with Ibrahimović scoring freely as the No. 9, saw Rooney move to the bench and to an in-and-out role until Ibrahimović was injured in April. When Rooney asked Mourinho if he could go out on loan in January to get more game time, he said the manager refused but agreed he could leave in the summer.

“I went in and had an honest conversation with José and asked him if I could go on loan in January because I wanted to play and he said no. He said he needed me more so for the Europa League but I could leave in the summer,” Rooney said. “I stood up, shook his hand, didn’t complain about it again, sat on the bench and came on and played a few games from then until the end of the season. But that was an honest conversation and two men shaking hands and agreeing on something which I think is probably the right thing to do.”

Rooney shared the memory in response to Mohamed Salah’s recent comments about feeling Liverpool had thrown him under the bus following a benching. Rooney has criticised Salah this season after noting a drop in the Egyptian’s performances that led to Arne Slot benching him.

“Time catches up with all of us when you are playing and this season he hasn’t looked at his best, at his sharpest,” Rooney said. “I have been quite vocal about that over the last couple of months and clearly Arne Slot has seen that and put him on the bench.”

He added: “What you would like to think is, he is one of the main players—if not the main player—for Liverpool over the last few years and you want to see him roll his sleeves up and say, ‘Okay then, I’ll show you.’”

On accountability, Rooney concluded: “What is hard is when you get to that age, and your performances drop, you look for reasons why and the last person you look at is yourself. And I think that’s what’s happening with him.”