The Best Manager Rants in Soccer History

Ed Wyman@@edwymanX.com LogoCorrespondent IAugust 8, 2011

The Best Manager Rants in Soccer History

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    As we get ready for yet another new season, the pressure on managers to succeed is as high as it has ever been. It is that pressure that causes football managers to lose their cool and, occasionally, have the odd rant. Most of the time these tantrums are kept out of the public eye. Sometimes, however, they are unable to contain themselves until they are out of the public eye and ear. The anger levels required for them to lose it in public means that their meltdowns are often pretty entertaining.

    However, they also reveal something about what it is really like to be a football manager. These incidents demonstrate that football management is no picnic. It is not quite the glamorous job that many would have you think.

    This is, therefore, a compilation of some of the best tantrums managers have thrown that the press have got hold of. I have, with one exception, only considered rants in English. Let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions!

    Warning: contains bad language! 

Arsene Wenger Gets Sent to the Stands

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    Arsene Wenger is a divisive figure, but you have to give him props for this loss of temper. After kicking a water bottle(Wenger has some problems with water bottles, doesn't he?) and being sent to the stand, Wenger went and stood directly above the Manchester United players' in front of a group of United fans who seemed to appreciate his actions. With 30 seconds left in the match, the Arsenal manager wasn't sure how to get to the stands so ended up climbing up them!

    Wenger claimed to not know that kicking the water bottle was an offence and that he wasn't arguing with the decision, merely frustrated. Wenger's actions had few repercussions and instead injected some comedy into the intense Arsenal-Manchester United rivalry.

Sir Alex Ferguson Kicks His Boot at Beckham

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    Probably the moment that caused David Beckham to leave Manchester United, this incident shows just how damaging a manager losing his temper can be. Ferguson's thrown/kicked boot gave Beckham a cut above his eye which later needed stitches.

    There has been no suggestion that the boot was aimed at anyone, let alone Beckham, but it proved to be the culmination of a dispute between player and manager that pushed David Beckham out of the Old Trafford door and into Real Madrid's welcoming arms. United not only lost a world class crosser and free-kick taker but also lost perhaps the most famous footballer in the world.

    Ferguson and Beckham have since made up, but between the final game of the season and his transfer to Real Madrid, Ferguson and Beckham did not speak once. Compare that to Ferguson's attempts to keep Eric Cantona.

Graham Taylor Doesn't Like Grumpy People

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    This footage is from a press conference during England's disastrous qualifying campaign for the 1994 World Cup in the USA. England needed to win their next game against the Netherlands to have a realistic chance of qualifying.

    The interview is entertaining enough as a whole, but skip to 2:05 to see him have a real go at Rob Shepherd, a journalist, for being too negative. Having been abused by the English media for the national side's poor performances, he got a degree of revenge, quickly winning over most of the press room with his team-talk style insults.

    Taylor raised a good point when he asked what was the matter with "English people". The negativity that the media prints consistently does nothing to help the national side succeed, not just in football, but in all sports. For all the humour of the situation, beneath lies a serious message, as hinted at by his assertion that he doesn't understand. The negativity and doubting severely hurts the chances of the team and is at least partly to blame for England's lack of success.

    As it was, England lost and soon failed to qualify for the World Cup. Taylor was forced out of his job, and the man who had taken Watford from the fourth division to the first division in just five years, as well as Aston Villa from the second division to runners-up behind Liverpool, was unable to recreate the same sort of sustained success. He eventually retired, citing no longer being able to motivate players as the reason.

Harry Redknapp Explains His Selection Policy

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    This interview shows just how much pressure managers come under. Getting hit by a football is enough, on this occasion, to send Harry over the edge. Perhaps it was the upcoming game at Molineux getting to him, but whatever the reason, the wayward shot(he is standing by the corner flag) has provided us with a classic moment.

    The guilty player is one James Keene, a Portsmouth player at the time of the incident. He spent most of his time at the club out on loan and made just two appearances for the first XI. Not too long after this incident he was shipped off to Sweden, wear he still plays for Elfsborg, as a striker, somewhat surprisingly. 

    Perhaps the best thing about this incident is that Harry acts as if nothing has happened once he has calmed down and carries on with the interview without so much as an apology.

    The video contains plenty of swearing, so don't watch it if that bothers you!

Ian Holloway Lays into Wayne Rooney

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    Ian Holloway achieved main stream popularity last season at Blackpool courtesy of his bizarre interviews, brutal honesty and hard work. A lot of the issues he tackled were, as he suggests in this video, funny to watch. However, there is more to them than simple comedy. In this interview, he tackles the Bosman ruling.

    He offers his opinion on the state of football, and it is one many would agree with. Football may be being played at previously unthinkable standards, but it is being done so at the expense of a great deal. Ian Holloway offers a view that few within football are willing to express.

    In another interview the Blackpool manager stated that he, and his club, were not welcome in the Premier League. With his radical opinions, it is easy to see why he felt that way.

Rafa Benitez: Priest in Mountain of Sugar

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    Rafael Benitez is always a great source of rants. His "facts" press conference about Manchester United's favouritism was seen as the season's turning point and the moment that Fergie got to Rafa. However, this more recent rant, after he had left Liverpool and while he was at Inter Milan is, in my view, his greatest rant. 

    The seemingly meaningless "priest in a mountain of sugar" line is, in fact, a Spanish phrase suggesting blindness(priests wear black, sugar is white). Nonetheless, it is a great rant, with some decent facts in it. He implies he knows Liverpool better than his successor, rubbishes Hodgson's claims that the squad he inherited was weak and he spent money on useless players. His lines about Hodgson not knowing what he is talking about are brilliant and he makes it clear that Hodgson is not going to be able to pass off any of the pressure he was, at the time, feeling on to him.  I am not entirely sure what the "flips and the flops" are, but it is still entertaining.

    Benitez may not have lasted long at Inter Milan, but Hodgson fared no better at Liverpool and was quickly shown the door after a disastrous start to the season that, at one time, saw Liverpool in the bottom three.

    In addition to laying into Ferguson and Hodgson, Benitez has also got into disputes with David Moyes, Jose Mourinho and Sam Allardyce.

Jose Mourinho Attacks Barcelona "favouritism"

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    As Jose Mourinho often states, he is always honest with the media. This is great for entertainment purposes as we get some mad rants, but it also means he asks some serious questions. After disagreeing with the referee's decisions in one of the many Real Madrid-Barcelona matches last season, Mourinho let loose, telling the media what he believed amounted to favouritism from some referees.

    Mourinho has lost his temper on other occasions over this issue, pointing to Barcelona receiving no punishment for "cleaning cards" after he had been sanctioned for doing the same earlier in the season. 

    Mourinho may not have shouted, but you could tell he was incensed. The repeated "por qué?" showed how angry and disappointed he was. His rant can be dismissed as being just a bitter response to being unable to defeat Barcelona, or it can be taken as a point worth considering. Are at least parts of his allegations true?

Sir Alex Ferguson Really Doesn't Want To Be Interviewed

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    Unfortunately the only form of this interview publicly available is the text form, as Sky, or Fergie, managed to keep it under wraps.

    The interviewer, Shreeves, is trying to ask Sir Alex about Cristiano Ronaldo's diving (there had been an incident in the preceding match), but he doesn't get very far as this is clearly a sensitive topic for the Scottish legend.

    Huge kudos to the interviewer for managing to not only stay clam, but also for standing up to Ferguson and making it seem like even more of a futile tantrum, especially the slammed door at the end. Ferguson's rant was so loud that a nearby interview with Gareth Southgate had to be scrapped.  

    Here is a transcript of the interview, courtesy of the Daily Mirror

    Shreeves: I asked him… 
    Ferguson: F***ing (inaudible) bastard. 
    Shreeves: Don't talk to me like that. 
    Ferguson: F**k off to you. 
    Shreeves: Don't talk to me like that. Don't even think about it. 
    Ferguson: Don't you think about it, you ****. F**k off. Right? 
    Shreeves: Listen, are you going to do the interview in a professional manner or not? Do you want to do it or not? 
    Ferguson: You f*****g be professional. You be professional. You're the one. 
    Shreeves: I'm entitled to ask… Cristiano gave the right answer. 
    Ferguson: F***ing hell with your answers. 
    Shreeves: Don't talk to me like that. Go away. If you want to behave civilly, fine. Don't talk to me like that. 
    Ferguson: F**k off. (door slams)

Kevin Keegan Will "Love It"

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    In the 1995-6 season, Newcastle held a 12 point lead over Manchester United at the start of February, but were reigned in by Sir Alex Ferguson's side after a poor run of results. Fergie's mind games clearly got to Keegan as he lost control while being interviewed by Sky, exclaiming "I will love it if we beat them! Love it!"

    Newcastle didn't beat them to the title, only managing two points in their last two games, giving Manchester United the title. Keegan, it seems, couldn't handle the pressure of the situation and it helped end Newcastle's chances of a first Premier League trophy. Half way through the next season, Keegan resigned from his position, partly due to events of the preceding season. 

    It is an incredibly famous outburst that has made lists of the greatest sporting moments, and was named by the Premier League as the greatest quotation of the first 10 years of the Premier League's existence. 

John Sitton: Halftime Meltdown

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    This expletive-ridden clip is taken from a Channel 4(a British television channel) programme called "Leyton Orient: club for a fiver". The near bankrupt club allowed cameras into their dressing room for the 1994-5 season as part of the programme that gave an inside look at the workings of a football club. It would, with hindsight, be understandable if the club regretted that decision.

    In this half-time rant, the hopeless situation of Orient proved to be too much for Sitton who lost his temper, firing long serving Terry Howard and challenging two others to a fight, finishing with the infamous line "and you can bring your f***ing dinner. 'Cos by the time I've finished with you, you'll f***ing need it."

    Leyton Orient won just seven matches and Sitton was fired before the end of the season. The pressure of the situation, in one of the lower leagues, shows just how much football means to people, and how much is on the line, at all levels of the game. His tantrum may have been useless to his team, who lost the game, but it goes to show just how serious a business professional football is. 

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