Jose Mourinho’s unbelievable reply when star needed to ‘f****** rip head off team-mate’
A Chelsea star has opened up about how Jose Mourinho had the perfect response when one team-mate wanted to rip another’s head off
Tal Ben Haim last one year at Stamford Bridge(Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC Via Getty Images)
Jose Mourinho had the perfect comeback after one of his players threatened to “f****** rip” the head off his teammate following a shocking challenge during pre-season.
Tal Ben Haim, who turned 44 on Tuesday, arrived at Chelsea on a free transfer in summer 2007, as the Blues sought to reclaim the Premier League crown from Manchester United, but struggled for minutes once first-choice duo John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho returned from injury.
Joining following the expiry of his deal at Bolton Wanderers, Ben Haim lasted just one season at Stamford Bridge before being sold to newly-wealthy Manchester City, though that didn’t prevent him from getting on the wrong side of star striker Drogba during pre-season.
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“He [Ben Haim] was strong. As strong as an ox,” Steve Sidwell told TUBES and ANGE GOLF LIFE. “It was the end of pre-season and he was crashing into everyone. He’s done Didier. Didier’s gone in.
“I’ve walked into training after and Didier is on the treatment table. Jose [Mourinho] has come in and asked ‘are you alright?’ And Didier’s gone ‘I’m gonna f****** rip his head off. I’m gonna f****** do him’. Jose said ‘I need him next week. Can you do him the week after?'”
Selected for Chelsea’s opening match of the 2007/08 season, Ben Haim featured in six of the west London club’s first eight Premier League encounters.
But three successive clean-sheet triumphs with centre-back partnership Carvalho and Alex left him battling to regain his place in the team, and slamming new boss Avram Grant certainly didn’t help his cause.
“If I knew Avram Grant was going to be the coach I would have signed for another club,” Ben Haim blasted in April 2008.
“The fact is while Jose was the coach I played most of the games and people who know me know that I would not have come here to be a reserve. I knew nothing good would come for me with Grant as Chelsea coach.”
The Israeli defender was docked two weeks’ wages and dropped from the matchday squad for the remainder of the campaign. He moved to Man City for £5m, becoming the second acquisition of the Mark Hughes era, in July 2008.
