The Greatest Feuds In Modern Football

FourFourTwo

15/03/2025

We're football fans! We love to hate!!

Transcript

00:00If there's one thing that really boils my LucasAid sport, it's when football commentators

00:08sit awkwardly silent during a massive on-pitch bust-up, and then just tut and say,

00:12Nobody wants to see this.

00:14Err, wrong, nerds.

00:15NERRD!

00:18Everybody wants to see this, it's one of the best things about the game.

00:22You see, being a football fan means feeding your own brain a constant diet of misplaced

00:26hope and even more misplaced petty grudges.

00:29So the few flashpoints where the players themselves indulge in their own juvenile aggression is

00:33just brilliant.

00:34Anyway, let's take a look at the really juicy ones.

00:37I'm Adam Cleary, this is 442, and these are the 10 Greatest Feuds in Modern Football.

00:4210.

00:43Karim Benzema vs Didier Deschamps During his six years out of the French national

00:47team, Benzema won three Champions Leagues, three Club World Cups, two UEFA Super Cups

00:52and a La Liga title.

00:54Meaning that whatever manager decided to leave him out must have had a really good reason?

00:58Well, in the case of Didier Deschamps, he decided that Benzema's arrest in November

01:022015 for allegedly blackmailing international colleague Mathieu Balbuena over a sex tape

01:09was probably justification enough, and despite getting back into the squad, it's rumbled

01:13on ever since.

01:14Benzema even recently labelling Deschamps a clown for sending him home from the World

01:18Cup with an injury, which is great fun.

01:219.

01:22Arsene Wenger vs Jose Mourinho One of the great managerial rivalries of Premier

01:26League history, the ill feeling between the French and Portuguese bosses also produced

01:30some fantastic quotes.

01:31Mourinho called Wenger a voyeur in 2006, and two years later, the Frenchman called his

01:36counterpart disconnected with reality and very disrespectful.

01:40And if you are watching, Arsene, I am genuinely quite sorry about that impression.

01:44Now, they both claim to have squashed the beef these days, but a recent punditry team-up

01:48for the Champions League final gave us some television tension that you could have cut

01:53with a spoon.

01:548.

01:55Keane vs Patrick Vieira Nothing, not the managers, not the fans, nothing

01:59better encapsulated the bitter rivalry between Manchester United and Arsenal at the turn

02:04of the millennium than Keane vs Vieira.

02:07It's woven into the very fabric of Premier League folklore.

02:11You know the story, tensions peaked at Highbury in February 2005 when the Irishman took exception

02:16to comments by Vieira, who he later revealed he thought was bullying teammate Gary Neville.

02:21Despite how he feels about watching Jamie Carragher practically throw his magic little

02:25pen at them on Monday Night Football, remains to be seen.

02:27Anyway, back to the tunnel, and referee Graeme Paul had to step in as Keane made a beeline

02:32for the Gunners midfielder while shouting, we'll see you out there.

02:35This rumbled on in every fixture between the two during their time in the league, and they

02:39both now preach what great respect they have for each other.

02:42But come on, we all saw the ITV World Cup coverage, yeah?

02:46I've seen better masked resentment in divorce hearings, although not any of the ones I've

02:50been personally involved in.

02:51The pictures of Gareth Bale's beaming face behind a flag carrying that message after

03:01the Welsh secured Euro 2020 qualification further soured his already-tetchy relationship

03:07with the Bernabeu faithful.

03:08The winger was booed, yeah, relatively loudly at his next home game, while a banner was

03:13revealed in response that read, Rodrigo, Vinnie, Lucas, Bale, in that order.

03:19He was promptly loaned back to Tottenham in the hope that absence would make the heart

03:22grow fonder, but, upon returning the following season, managed only seven games as he quietly

03:27saw out his contract.

03:28However, in what was, quite literally, getting the last word, Bale signed for Los Angeles

03:33FC in 2022, and immediately sent a message to the club's not inconsiderable Hispanic

03:39supporter base in fluent Spanish, something the Madrid press had repeatedly said he was

03:45incapable of doing because he didn't care about the club.

03:496.

03:50VAR vs. Itself

03:53Prior to its major introduction in 2017, football fans were united in their assessment of modern

03:58refereeing.

03:59It's inconsistent, the margins are too fine, and if technology can help officials, then

04:03they should probably just use it.

04:05Okay, said VAR, which for the purposes of this video I'm treating as if it's a sentient

04:08entity, we'll review all these decisions.

04:11And it did, to the point where games were routinely being paused for ten minutes while

04:15some nerd in a truck frantically tried to draw lines on a pitch using an Etch-A-Sketch,

04:19which was, yeah, quite bad.

04:21In the years since, it's been a constant battle of streamlining the process and rewriting

04:25the rules, to the point now where nobody has any idea what it's actually checking and

04:30what power it actually has.

04:32All the while the officials charged with implementing it get dragged further into the spotlight

04:36it was supposed to spare them from in the first place.

04:39Just let f***ing robots do it or something, anything would be better than this.

04:435.

04:44LeSulc vs. Raymond Domenech

04:45LeSulc, and, I mean, come on, let's face it, if you get a nickname like that, chances

04:49are you might be the problem, fell out big time with the then-manager of France in 2010.

04:55Apparently he aired some, ooh, I don't speak French, unsavoury, let's say, remarks at

05:00his coach during a 2-0 defeat to Mexico, and was promptly sent home from the tournament

05:05as a result.

05:06And just to pour even more gasoline on this, the French Football Federation gave him an

05:0918-game international ban, effectively ending his national career in the process.

05:14Another type to just let that go, though, Domenech would later say about an emerging

05:17Kylian Mbappé that he has the choice of being Ronaldo or an Elka.

05:22Meow.

05:23An Elka responded with his own assessment, saying Mbappé could also be a Domenech, a

05:27small player and a coach who hasn't won any trophies for ten years.

05:31Also meow.

05:324.

05:33Roy Keane vs. Mick McCarthy

05:34The public fallout between Ireland's manager and captain quickly became one of the most

05:38memorable incidents of the 2002 World Cup.

05:41Keane, somehow 30 here despite looking like an uncle who your parents repeatedly remind

05:45you not to wind up under any circumstances, gave an explosive interview on the eve of

05:50the tournament.

05:51In it, he criticised the team's preparation, and this culminated in that now infamous head-to-head

05:56with McCarthy himself, in which the Manchester United midfielder pulled no punches.

06:01And by pulled no punches, I mean he literally told him, you can stick your World Cup up

06:05your bollocks.

06:06I'm sorry, sorry, sorry.

06:08You can stick your World Cup up your bollocks.

06:11That was really more Northern Irish, that, wasn't it?

06:13Should probably delete that.

06:14Anyway, moving on.

06:15I'm not a doctor or anything, but unless there is something dramatically wrong with

06:18my own bollocks, I've got no idea how sticking a World Cup up them would work in practice.

06:24Like at all.

06:25Neither did McCarthy, apparently, as unsurprisingly, Keane was sent home and didn't ever play

06:29for Ireland again.

06:303.

06:31Matty Lopez vs. Mauro Ricciardi

06:32And wow, this one.

06:34Okay, I'm going to make this incredibly short because with just a few key facts, I

06:38think you can easily fill the rest in for yourself.

06:41Maxi Lopez and Mauro Ricciardi were best buddies at Sampdoria.

06:46Mauro Ricciardi then married this woman, Wanda Nara.

06:49Wanda Nara is Maxi Lopez's ex-wife.

06:52Mauro Ricciardi then got this tattoo.

06:54This tattoo is of Maxi Lopez's own children from the aforementioned marriage to Wanda

07:00Nara.

07:01The fact that Raul Lopez hasn't been spotted in an unzipped tracksuit screaming Ella ha

07:05vuelto a los ninos contra mi is frankly beyond me.

07:122.

07:13Zinedine Zidane vs. Marco Materazzi

07:15Yeah, you absolutely don't need me to paint the picture for you here, do you?

07:19You know the game, you know the players, you know the occasion, you know the outcome.

07:24All we can do at this stage, some 15 years plus removed, is consider the question.

07:29If someone you barely know said they'd rather have your sister than your shirt, what

07:35would you do?

07:36Well, you'd headbutt them, square in the chest, in the closing stages of the final

07:40game of your career on the biggest possible stage condemning your entire nation to penalty

07:44shootout heartbreak in the process, wouldn't you?

07:47Which means it was perfectly normal.

07:48I mean, not for me of course, I don't have a sister.

07:51If Materazzi had said that to me, I'd have just been like, what?

07:54Then probably, I don't know, gone and scored the winner.

07:56Oh well, funny old life.

07:581.

07:59Rollinger vs Sir Alex Ferguson Look up footballing feud in the dictionary

08:03and what will you find?

08:05Well, nothing, because dictionaries don't have symbolic phrases, but if they did, you'd

08:09see a picture of these two.

08:11Now I know I said nothing symbolised the rivalry quite like Roy Keane vs Patrick Vieira, but

08:15the difference is, this was the rivalry, not merely a neat visual representation of it.

08:21A 9 year battle for the highest honours in the game between Man United and Arsenal took

08:26from 1996 to 2005 and was at times as thrilling on the touchline as it was on the pitch.

08:33From the battle of Old Trafford to Pizzagate to John O'Shea somehow scoring the most composed

08:38chip you've ever seen in your life, I don't know what was going on there, it was a time

08:41of massive confrontation between the two teams and their managers, each iconic as the clubs

08:46themselves were at the forefront.

08:48They exchanged barbs in the press, they rattled each other on TV, they gave football fans

08:52the petty squabbles that all petty squabble sins have had to live up to.

08:57And again, they speak of their respect for each other these days, but we know, we know

09:02what's really going on there.

09:05We know.

09:06And that's it, that's the video, thank you so very much for watching and making it all

09:10the way till the end.

09:11Somebody's keen.

09:12While you're here, please do consider subscribing to the 442 YouTube channel, we've got loads

09:15of awesome football content dropping all through the week, as well as an amazing library of

09:20documentaries, player interviews and performance guides as well.

09:23Until next time though, thank you once again for watching, I do hope you enjoyed yourself

09:27and I'll see you soon.

09:28Goodbye!

The Greatest Feuds In Modern Football

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