10 Training Ground Feuds You Probably Didn't Know About

8. Joey Barton And Ousmane Dabo

While this list has refrained from including too many isolated incidents, the magnitude of Joey Barton's infamous clash with former City comrade Ousmane Dabo in their Carrington training complex has surely soured the relationship between the pair. Where controversy and violence lurks, Barton certainly has previous, so it wasn't so much a surprise as it was an inevitability when tempers flared to such an extent that he ended up knocking out one of his own team-mates during a training-ground bust-up. The Frenchman, rendered unconscious, was transported to hospital where he was treated for several head injuries, and a suspected detached retina, following a series of blows to the face. Pressing charges against his Scouse colleague, the Greater Manchester Police arrested Barton and charged him with affray. Following his guilty plea, he was sentenced to a four-month suspended prison sentence plus 200 hours of community service.

''He tackled me, I replied by tackling him too. We found ourselves face-to-face. I had no intention to fight. I jostled him, but I didn't hit him. So I turned back and then he struck me to the side of the head. I lost consciousness and, being on the ground, he jumped at me and went on hitting me in the face about ten times. He says he is a man, a bad boy, but he is just a coward.'' - Ousmane Dabo, September 2012.