You Snooze, You Lose Your Place in the Team

Liverpool’s Ryan Babel was dropped from the Dutch first eleven yesterday for oversleeping. Apparently he twice overslept and missed team meetings before the game against Romania, so Marco van Basten took a hard line and replaced him with Real Madrid’s Arjen Robben. “The first time that he arrived too late, he settled the matter with a joke,” says van Basten. “The second time he joined us too late for the meal and that was a bit too much. He has to appear on time, just like all the others.”

Unfortunately for both men, Holland lost 1-0 to Romania and fell to second place in their Euro 2008 qualifying. With all the rotation at Liverpool recently, Babel certainly can’t claim exhaustion as an excuse for tiredness.

This is of course bad news for everyone involved, except Romania and Rafa Benitez. But it’s also a great excuse to list some non-footballing reasons for players being dropped throughout history.

When Sunderland players Anthony Stokes, Toby Hysen and Marton Fulop were late arriving for the 4:30pm team bus to Barnsley, manager Roy Keane told the trio not to bother coming and left without them.

Rio Ferdinand was dropped from the England team for a couldn’t lose Euro 2004 Qualifier away to Turkey, for missing a drugs test. The player was eventually officially banned for nine months, but the FA took pre-emptive action by leaving him out.

When Vladimir Romanov threatened to sell every Hearts player if they didn’t beat Dunfermline Athletic, Steven Pressley held a press conference announcing “significant unrest in the Hearts dressing room.” He was stripped of the captaincy and dropped from the team, before eventually joining Celtic.

Ruud Gullit dropped Alan Shearer from the Newcastle team to face Sunderland in 1999, as part of an ongoing power struggle between the two.

Any more to add?

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Category: English Premier League, Romania, World Football