IT’S A KNOCKOUT WITH PLAYERS’ PUNCH-UPS
ODOI: ‘RAHEEM IS BIG LEADER’
UNUSUALLY for a training ground incident, West Ham striker John Hartson was caught on camera kicking Eyal Berkovic flush on the jaw. The Israeli midfielder had punched Hartson on the leg as he attempted to help the Wales international to his feet, and the retaliation (left) was savage. Berkovic said: “If my head had been a ball, it would have been in the top corner of the net.” Alan Shearer v Keith Gillespie, 1997
A BOOZY mid-season trip to Dublin for Newcastle United’s players escalated on a night out when skipper Alan Shearer ordered Keith Gillespie outside for smashing a table full of glasses. When Gillespie threw the first punch, the captain’s response was so conclusive he left his team-mate with blood pouring from a head wound. Shearer later admitted he was worried about getting “done for manslaughter”.
CHARLTON strikers Derek Hales and Mike Flanagan were both sent off after coming to blows in an FA Cup tie against Maidstone. The incident was allegedly sparked by Flanagan making a remark about his team-mate’s genitals after Hales had failed to pass to him.
BLACKBURN’S title triumph 24 years ago soon unravelled in a poor Champions League campaign, which reached boiling point after just four minutes of a 3-0 defeat by Spartak Moscow in Russia.
Graeme Le Saux landed the first blow on David Batty after they both went for the same loose ball, and captain Tim
Sherwood had to dive in to separate the feuding pair
(right).
TWO years after the Crazy Gang’s FA Cup Final triumph against Liverpool, warlord John Fashanu and steely midfielder Lawrie Sanchez settled their differences behind a hedge at training.
Fashanu admitted: “I don’t like Sanch and he doesn’t like me.” To Fashanu’s surprise, Sanchez took his best body punch – “a shot that would knock a horse down” – without flinching before assistant manager Terry Burton stepped in.
NO list of players involved in punch-ups with their team-mates would be complete without Newcastle midfielders Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer’s outbreak of Queensberry Rules in a home game against Aston Villa 14 years ago.
The pair had to be separated (top) and both were sent off, leaving the Toon with eight men after Steven Taylor’s earlier red card.
They had to be kept apart in the dressing room as the bad blood continued to spill over.
CALLUM HUDSON-ODOI has described Raheem Sterling as a “big leader” in the England squad. The Chelsea star said: “Raheem is like an idol to me – what he’s doing for club and country is an amazing thing which I will try to replicate myself. He’s very encouraging, very positive about everything he does. He’s a big leader in the team.”
On the Sterling-Gomez spat, he added: “What’s happened, happened. We just want to move on as a team and focus on the game.”