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When team-mates fall out: Benzema and Vinicius, Bowyer and Dyer, Le Saux and Batty…

Kylian Mbappe Neymar PSG Sep21

Disagreements in the workplace are commonplace but they are slightly more high profile when they happen on a soccer pitch in front of thousands.

Soccer is a passionate sport and even the best players can lose their heads with their own team-mates.

Last week, France superstar Kylian Mbappe was seen ranting at PSG team-mate Neymar when sat on the bench after being replaced in their side's 2-0 win over Montpellier.

According to RMC Sport, Mbappe is believed to have said to Idrissa Gueye: "He (Neymar) does not give me the pass."

Planet Sport looks back on other occasions team-mates have not seen eye to eye on the pitch - though they may have gone toe to toe.

Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior

Real Madrid attackers Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior made the news in 2020 when Benzema was caught on camera telling fellow team-mates not to pass the ball to the Brazilian.

The Spanish giants lost their first group game of the 2020/21 Champions League to Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 and were under pressure to take all three points against their next opponents, Borussia Monchengladbach.
Benzema and co were 1-0 down to the German team at the interval, and in the tunnel, the France striker was heard saying to his compatriot Ferland Mendy: "Brother don't play to him. On my mother's life. He is playing against us."
Opta statistics revealed Benzema was following his own advice and had not passed the ball once to Vinicius in the first half.
Nevertheless, the two seem to have made up, having recorded 22 goal contributions between them in the first seven league games of 2021/22 to sit first and second in the goalscoring charts.

Hugo Lloris and Heung-min Son

Another example of team-mates not seeing eye to eye also occurred in the 2020/21 season and was captured by the Amazon behind the scenes documentary All or Nothing.

Lloris went after Son as the referee blew his half-time whistle in Tottenham's match against Everton, despite Spurs leading at the break.

The argument started because Lloris accused Son of not tracking back with his player after losing possession. The dispute continued in the changing rooms, with the two shouting at each other before manager Jose Mourinho sat the team down.

Mourinho explained the argument was good because it showed the level of commitment expected from the team.
Spurs would go on to win the match and at full-time, Son and Lloris were captured smiling and hugging, celebrating the team's victory.

Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer

This fight between two team-mates resulted in both players receiving red cards. The incident which occurred during Newcastle's clash with Aston Villa in 2005, is one of the most iconic fall-outs in soccer history.

It came about after Bowyer accused Dyer of refusing to pass the ball to him. An exchange of words followed and Bowyer marched towards his team-mate, with the two squaring up.
A grapple followed, with Dyer seemingly making the first aggressive arm movement, prompting two consecutive punches from Bowyer.
Dyer then appeared to be on the verge of a retaliative punch, but players from both teams arrived to intervene and Bowyer was dragged away from the duel with his shirt ripped at the neck.
Both fighters were sent off and continued the spat down the tunnel before reportedly being offered out by manager Graeme Souness.
Speaking after the game, Souness was in no doubt as to who was to blame: "Lee's actions are indefensible. He's guilty - as the pictures show - of throwing more than one punch and will have to accept any punishment coming his way."
While Newcastle maintained Dyer's innocence, even contesting his three-match ban, Bowyer was fined a record six weeks' wages (£210,000), banned for four games and told by chairman Freddy Shepherd that he should go "down on his hands and knees" for forgiveness.

The duo spent one more season together at Newcastle and later reunited at West Ham, with Dyer saying of his team-mate: "That's just the way Lee was."

Bruce Grobbelaar and Steve McManaman

Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar was furious with his young team-mate Steve McManaman after the player produced a poor clearance during a Merseyside derby in 1993.

Everton capitalised to score and as their fierce rivals celebrated, Grobbelaar remonstrated with McManaman, throwing his arms in the air and walking after the England midfielder. McManaman retaliated and pushed his goalkeeper in the chest, only succeeding in adding more fuel to the fire.

The pair then squared up and took turns to push their hands into the face of their team-mate. Even as McManaman walked off to take his position for the restart, Grobbelaar could be seen gesturing in the direction of the mercurial winger.

Graeme Le Saux and David Batty

David Batty was known as a player you don't mess with. But in 1995, on a freezing cold night in Moscow, left-back Graeme Le Saux punched his Blackburn Rovers team-mate.
The previous season, Blackburn Rovers had defied the odds and won the Premier League but reality bit the following season.
Under new boss Ray Harford their title defence was over before it had barely begun while their maiden Champions League campaign went from bad to worse.
With their qualification hopes hanging by a thread, only four minutes had elapsed of their clash with Spartak Moscow when the two England players collided while contesting a loose ball.
An angry exchange of words began and when play eventually stopped for a foul on captain Tim Sherwood, it became apparent that the exchange had turned ugly as the pair traded pushes and shoves.
Le Saux threw the first punch with a left hook to the approaching Batty's throat and appeared to be winding up for another before Sherwood intervened, with the Blackburn captain getting an almighty thump of his own for his troubles.

Blackburn went on to lose the match 3-0, with Le Saux, culpable for all three goals, replaced in the 58th minute with a broken hand for his troubles.

Jermain Beckford and Eoin Doyle

Strikers love hitting the target but in this context the only target these two Preston attackers were interested in hitting was each other.

In the 2016/17 Championship season, with Sheffield Wednesday leading match 2-1 and temporarily down to nine men, Preston had a counter attack in the dying minutes.
Doyle passed the ball wide to his right instead of passing forward to a seemingly marked Beckford.
However, Beckford felt Doyle should have still passed to him and after the ball went out for a goal kick, the duo squared up to each other.
A bout of pushing and shoving followed which led to both players being red-carded and the incident branded an "absolute embarrassment" by manager Simon Grayson.

Some good did come out it, though, with Preston fans refunded their ticket money using the fines paid by the warring duo.

READ MORE: Five Manchester United managers who were far worse than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

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