What footballers struggled to be 'teammates'? Man Utd, Bayern, Liverpool...

  /  autty

QUESTION It's well known that Manchester United's Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole didn't see eye to eye. What other players struggled to be 'teammates'?

On the pitch, Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham formed a professional partnership, scoring at a rate of a goal every 85 minutes. Off the pitch, they wouldn't talk to each other.

The problem stemmed from Cole's England debut against Uruguay in March 1995. Sheringham, a Spurs player at the time, was substituted for Cole by manager Terry Venables in the 71st minute. Cole offered his hand and Sheringham snubbed it, leaving him humiliated.

Sheringham joined Manchester United in 1997 but the two men could not get on. Cole said: 'I would rather sit down and have a cuppa with Neil Ruddock, who broke my leg in two places in 1996, than with Teddy Sheringham.'

Nevertheless, a decade after they had retired, the two men buried the hatchet after bumping into each other in a nightclub.

Bayern Munich players Lothar Matthaus and Stefan Effenberg disliked each other so much that Effenberg included a chapter in his autobiography entitled What Lothar Matthaus Knows About Football, consisting of a blank page.

There was a burning animosity between Liverpool legends 'Iron' Tommy Smith and Emlyn 'Crazy Horse' Hughes, two of Liverpool's greatest captains. Smith's dislike for Hughes dated back to 1973 when, after a fallout with manager Bill Shankly, Smith was replaced by Hughes.

After Shankly's unexpected retirement in 1974, Hughes - much to Smith's chagrin - was confirmed as the captain by his successor, Bob Paisley.  Paisley was aware of the situation: 'Some of Emlyn's teammates weren't that fond of him and one of them, Tommy Smith, absolutely hated him. Smithy and Hughes never spoke to each other.'

In the England cricket dressing room, Kevin Pietersen would upset his teammates by badmouthing them to the opposition. Spin bowler Graeme Swann said: 'Me and Kev never liked each other anyway.

We actually got on better professionally because we were honest with each other. I wanted a Kevin Pietersen who was scoring runs because he was simply one of the best in the world.'

Related: Manchester United Liverpool Bayern Munich Teddy Sheringham Andy Cole
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