Sometimes, people in football just don’t along. Whether it be for personal or professional reasons, it isn’t unknown for footballers to launch scathing attacks at their own clubs.
Today, we’ll be looking at five instances where this happened involving players in the Premier League. We’ll be looking at former Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea players in this piece, among others – what are your favourite football crashouts?
Neal Maupay
Neal Maupay has made it very clear that he did not enjoy his time at Everton. He was frequently targeted by the fans for his lacklustre displays, which ultimately saw him score just one goal in 29 Premier League appearances.
He was loaned out to Marseille for the 2024/25 season, with tensions reaching a head when Maupay took to Twitter to mock the Evertonians after a defeat at home against Nottingham Forest.
The club themselves did not publically respond, but Maupay received a torrent of abuse from Toffees fans in the aftermath. You can’t say he didn’t ask for it – he was subsequently released by the club in the summer.
Ashley Cole
While Maupay’s quarrel with Everton seemed to be somewhat personal, Ashley Cole’s transfer saga at Arsenal was motivated purely by monetary gain.
Previously, Cole had been illegally tapped up by Chelsea regarding the possibility of a transfer move. While Chelsea and Jose Mourinho were fined for the incident, the wheels had been set in motion for Cole to make the jump across London.
Cole was reportedly ‘shaking with anger’ after he deemed Arsenal’s counter offer to be too low. In reponse, Arsenal fans gave him the moniker of ‘Cashley’ and have never forgiven him for his betrayal.
William Gallas
Cole may have forced a move from Arsenal to Chelsea, but William Gallas was determined to go the other way. He was actually part of the deal that saw Cole move to Chelsea, as he was included in the offer.
Gallas reportedly said he would ‘score own goals’ if he was not granted his transfer away from the club, something that Gallas himself vehemently denied.
In retaliation, Gallas claimed that Chelsea ‘lacked class’ and accused them of perpetuation ‘false allegations’, but never took the case to a civil court.
Nicolas Anelka
We’re cheating a bit with this one, as we’ll be looking at an incident that didn’t take place in the Premier League – Nicolas Anelka was, however, a Premier League player at the time. Instead, we’ll be looking at his astonishing meltdown at the 2010 World Cup as part of the France squad.
Despite enjoying a positive relationship with France head coach Raymond Domenech in the years prior, this certainly wasn’t the case in 2010. During a 2-0 defeat against Mexico, Domenech hooked Anelka at half time, prompting the Chelsea man to launch a foul-mouthed tirade directly at the former Lyon boss.
Anelka was promptly sent home by Domenech, sparking a mutiny within the French squad – they refused to train in the wake of Anelka’s dismissal. The FFF sided with Domenech, slapping Anelka with an 18-match ban – in response, Anelka retired from international football and France were eliminated in the group stage.
Mohamed Salah
This one should be fresh in the memory. Following a 3-3 draw against Leeds United, which saw Mohamed Salah dropped for the third game in a row, the Egyptian took to the media to lambast Liverpool head coach Arne Slot and bemoan the deterioration of their relationship.
Liverpool’s full response has yet to be seen, but Salah isn’t expected to feature in the Liverpool squad for the foreseeable future. Slot himself has not yet commented on Salah’s outburst.
If this marks the end of Salah’s time at Liverpool, it will be a desperately sad conclusion for a player who has given them so much – but not all stories can have a happy ending.