Chelsea have banished as many as 13 first-team players to what has been dubbed their ‘bomb squad’.
Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell are among the victims at Stamford Bridge but they are not the only stars to have been brutally exiled by their manager.
Here, three players reveal to Mail Sport what it feels like to be left on the outside.
JAY BOTHROYD
I had a big thing with Mick McCarthy, everyone knows that. He didn’t like the way I was. I didn’t like the way he was. I’ve got a strong personality. He’s got a strong personality. I wasn’t willing to give in. He wasn’t willing to give in. In the end, he started treating me really badly. He made me train by myself, he took my squad number off me, he made me get changed in the kids’ dressing room.
I was in my mid-twenties and I was getting changed with 16-year-olds I’d never met before. I was training in the afternoon. I just had to be at the training ground, run around the pitch, have a few shots on goal. There was no goalkeeper, nothing. It was just me and (fitness coach) Tony Daley running around the pitch in the afternoon. My saving grace was an ex-player called Gary Green. We used to go in together because we lived close. He said, ‘Listen, you aren’t going to play for this club anymore but you have to train your mind now to get fit for your next destination. Come in every day, smile, do your training. It’s not going to be fun but you need to build that mental toughness and when you get to your next team, you can thrive.’
Chelsea star Raheem Sterling is among those to have been banished to the ‘bomb squad’
Jay Bothroyd has recounted the time he was frozen out at Wolves under Mick McCarthy
We haven’t spoken for a long time, and I don’t think I ever told him, but he did really help because that’s exactly what happened. It was so hard. I love football. The fact I wasn’t able to play with my team-mates, every day scoring goals, having banter with the keeper, all that kind of stuff, it really hurt and damaged me. I never made it up with Mick. I’ve not seen him since and, to be honest, I’m not sure I want to. I haven’t got any time for him. He tried to ruin my career and I’ll never forgive him for that. Managers can get away with a lot because what they say in press conferences is often taken as gospel. I had to think, ‘No, I’m going to prove you wrong’. That’s exactly what I did. I left Wolves in 2008, two years later I played for England.
DANNY MURPHY
It happened twice to me, at Charlton and Blackburn. At Charlton, it came from nowhere. I’d heard Alan Curbishley had instigated a deal to sell me to Newcastle. I went to see him to address it and he denied it. I knew that wasn’t right. I was left out of the team that weekend and forced to train with the youngsters. He claimed I wasn’t in the right frame of mind but there’s no way he could judge that.
The hardest thing was getting through the anger. If you get frustrated and decide to go out on the ale, the only person who suffers is you. But keeping disciplined to stay in the zone is tough. Mark Robson, who’s now a coach at West Ham, was great with me. He motivated me. Kept me going. Just before the window ended, Curbs put me back in the squad for a game against Chelsea but left me as the only player not to be part of the team or bench. I was the best player but it was probably to show me who was boss. That was the final straw. I left the stadium and jumped in a black cab outside Stamford Bridge.
Danny Murphy says Alan Curbishley’s decision to sell him at Charlton came out of the blue
In hindsight, I should have stayed but the next day I got a call about a move to Tottenham which excited me greatly. When you’re training with the kids, you’re not just missing out on matches but also high-intensity training with players at your level. You’ve not got a game to work towards at the end of the week to focus your mind. So when I signed for Spurs, I’d lost a bit of my edge. I spent six weeks trying to get back to match sharpness.
At Blackburn, I was near the end of my career and on our fifth manager of the season in Michael Appleton. We were struggling and he left me out and took the armband off me. That was fair enough, he had to be seen to be doing something different. But then I came into training and Gary Bowyer pulled me aside to say I was training with the kids. That was a surprise. I thought I’d taken the news from Appy well. The irony of that situation is he was relieved of his duties two months later and I was back with the boys.
I’ve done media with Curbs since and I have a lot of respect for him and Appy. I didn’t in those period but looking back, at Charlton especially, I had a great time. One of the most difficult aspects is that all the people who care about you away from football – your friends and family – are asking what’s going on and if you’re okay. Sometimes people think you’ve done something bad and look for something deeper. You do have the odd sleepless night thinking about what you should do. Should I have it out with the manager? Should I go to the press?
Murphy also found himself sidelined in the latter stages of his career at Blackburn Rovers
STEPHEN WARNOCK
Gerard Houllier had told me at Aston Villa, ‘Whenever you’re playing in the north west, you can go straight home after the game. You don’t have to ask me.’ We played Manchester City away. I made my way home, came in to train on the Monday, and there were seven or eight who’d gone home without asking him. He pulled us into a group and said, ‘You all need to apologise’. He told Emile Heskey and Brad Friedel, ‘You two can go because I said you could travel back to the north west’. I’m thinking he’s just not seen me. Then he said, ‘You need to apologise’. I asked, ‘What for? You told me, Emile and Brad we didn’t have to ask you’. He told me to go train.
Then the next day, I came in and the kit man said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’ve been told to tell you that you’re with the reserves’. I didn’t understand it. There was no communication at all. I sat out that season. I got back in under Alex McLeish. That season, Stiliyan Petrov was diagnosed with cancer and I became captain. I was constantly on the phone with the owner, Randy Lerner. I took it upon myself to do as much as I could.
Stephen Warnock fell out with Gerard Houllier during his time with Aston Villa
Houllier banished Warnock to the reserves before Alex McLeish replaced the French boss
We stayed up and I had the owner telling me how indebted he was to me, how much he wanted to reward me and there was a new contract on the table. He got Paul Lambert in, and I got a phone call about two weeks later. I’ll never forget it. I was on a cruise. A call from my agent basically saying Villa wanted me out. What? I’ve just been offered a new contract. It was bizarre.
I thought I’d go back in at pre-season, prove myself and show what I can do. I went back the fittest and strongest I’d ever been. I thought, ‘I’ve done well here, I’ve won him over’. The last game of pre-season we played Nottingham Forest away. I didn’t have a great game, came in the day after and he pulled me into his office. ‘That’s you done. You’re with the reserves now.’ I was like, ‘Why did you take me on pre-season?’. He went, ‘We needed numbers’. I was like, ‘Are you f***ing for real?’. I had a couple of weeks to find a new club. Nothing came up.
Because it happened to me previously with Houllier, my concern was getting a reputation I didn’t deserve. I could be a pain in the a*** but it’s because I had such high standards. I got frustrated with people when they tossed it off and then play at the weekend. I got completely bombed out. Twice at Villa where I was with the reserves thinking, “My God, how has this happened?” Suddenly you can end up in no man’s land through no fault of your own. It’s the worst feeling. It makes you feel unwanted, like you’re not a good player.
