Latest news with #teamspirit
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Chelsea pair were ‘Mr. and Mrs' and ‘drove each other mad' in rows over moisturising cream but arguments HELPED squad
CHELSEA need brotherhood, shower gel and plenty of moisturising cream to get back to the summit of football. Legendary Blues midfielder John Obi Mikel believes dressing room chemistry is the key to success on the pitch. And he can see it brewing in the current squad. 4 4 4 He was part of the all-conquering Chelsea team which landed title after title, cup after cup during his 11 years at Stamford Bridge. But small details are behind big wins and Mikel revealed how his bizarre relationship with Salomon Kalou epitomised the strong bonds between the players of the time. Together they won the Champions League, Premier League and four FA Cups when team spirit was the fear factor which often made the difference in key games. Mikel, 38, said: 'It is very important, the friendship between your teammates in the squad, because It brings you guys together. 'The chemistry is there, not just the chemistry on the pitch, the chemistry outside the pitch because you already know your partner, your team-mates. 'You know what they like and what they don't like. How to approach them in terms of when they're not performing, 'How do you get them to wake up? Do you go to them? Do you scream at them, or is it like a quiet word you need to have and get them to keep going? 'So that relationship is very important. And of course, Salomon Kalou, what can I say about the guy? Join SUN CLUB for the Chelsea Files every Tuesday plus in-depth coverage and exclusives from Stamford Bridge 'Listen, we were Mr and Mrs at the football club, we were called Tom and Jerry. 'He drives me mad, a guy I absolutely love. I can never say a bad word about Salomon Kalou. Here is why Liam Delap is the perfect striker for Chelsea 'He never bought his own shower gel, his own cream, he always went to my locker and nicked mine. 'I'd finish having a shower and I go to my locker trying to get my cream, it's not there. Salomon Kalou's nicked it. 'Sometimes it's fine to use it, but please, return it to my locker. He didn't. 'And when I go to him and ask where's my cream? He says, 'buy another one'. I'm like, 'what? Why don't you buy yourself your own cream?' 'He just drove me mad. But then on the pitch, when you're that honest and open with each other, on the pitch, you know each other so well, right and it helps so much. 'I'd love to see the players create that friendship, that chemistry between each other. Looking at this team squad, They're young but I can see a little bit that they have that. Chelsea's legendary parties 'I need to see a bit more. It's so important to create that atmosphere.' Where Mikel won, lost and partied alongside superstars like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, modern day Chelsea is about building reputations through ambitious young players like Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo and soon-to-arrive Liam Delap. Mikel said: 'We enjoyed good times together. We went out to central London every time we won a trophy. We celebrated quite heavily because we were successful and were given a licence to go out and enjoy ourselves. 'That brought that chemistry together because every year, every other year, we had something to celebrate. We were always winning something. So we were always having a massive party come the end of the season. That brought us together. 'They have to win trophies in order to be able to bring that chemistry in the squad.' New Chelsea have started the process by qualifying for the Champions League and winning the Conference League. Club World Cup opportunities But the post-match party was tame by previous standards, mainly because a lot of the players are now on international duty before travelling to next week's Club World Cup. The month-long tournament in the US Club World Cup railroads through the traditional summer. Mikel said: 'It's silverware to be won and we want to go out and compete to win it. 'We have to talk about the prize money as well. Almost £100million. That puts you in a great advantage in terms of in the summer, transfer window, bringing in players, strengthening your squad. There's a lot there for these players to think about. 'I know we players talk about having a rest, which we should. But we actually don't rest when we go on holidays. 'We fly back to our different continents where we're from, countries where we're from. 'And then we go back after a week or a few days, playing locally with the local teams where we grew up from, kicking the ball about, playing five-a-side, ten-a-side games. 'You don't want to rest for two, three weeks without doing anything. When you come back for pre-season, it takes you even longer to get in shape. 'During the summer, you're looking at yourself thinking, I need to get back into it. You start running, you start playing football and make sure you come back, so that it doesn't take you a long time to get back into shape. We all did that. I get it, I understand. 'The Club World Cup, for the teams involved, it's a great opportunity, a great way for those teams to keep their players fit, keep them ticking over, knowing that when the season starts, they are almost half there.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Special gesture that show Victory's 'family' mentality
Brendan Hamill will never forget the moment of kindness that showed Melbourne Victory are a unique force to be reckoned with. Hamill suffered a devastating season-ending ACL tear in the Victory's 1-0 first leg home defeat to Auckland FC. Last Saturday, he watched on from Melbourne as his teammates attempted to turn things around. Dynamo Zinedine Machach scored to level the tie, then ran to the bench before grabbing Hamill's No.5 jersey and lifting it to the cameras. For BJ 💙 — Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) May 24, 2025 "I had no idea," Hamill told AAP. "I was at my son's little birthday party, I was watching the game. I watched him score. "He kept running over to the bench and he was like 'give me something, give me something' and then they threw the jersey. "I was like, 'oh, what are they doing?' And then right before he held it up in the air, I connected the dots. "It was special, and it brought a tear to my eye. "How do you put into words the feeling that that gave me? It triumphed any trophy or winning feeling. It was to be a part of a team. It was just special. I was there with them." The Victory went on to win the game 2-0, the semi-final tie 2-1 on aggregate to reach Saturday's derby decider against Melbourne City at AAMI Park. This was the moment @gomvfc got themselves back in the Semi-Final! 👀🔥Zinedine Machach unleashed an all-important strike and dedicated his celebration to teammate Brendan Hamill who is out with an ACL injury 💙📺 Watch #AKLvMVC live NOW on Paramount+ or Sky Sport. — Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) May 24, 2025 Coach Arthur Diles was on the bench watching Machach's tribute to his injured teammate with pride. "When I see things like that, that means more to me than any result does," he told AAP. "When I see a group that's that united and care so much for each other and are so close, that's really special and something that I'm definitely proud of. "I love being the leader of this group, knowing that they're so together and making sure that through thick and through thin, we stick together like family. "Because I've said to them: that's what family does. Family is there for you through your highs and through your lows. "If we're a genuine family, then situations like this should bring us together, and it did that." Victory players have spoken publicly about winning for injured pair Hamill and Mitch Langerak - who could also be joined on the sidelines by Nishan Velupillay (ankle). "It's little things like that where it just shows you that we're a force to be reckoned with," Hamill said. "Our togetherness is such a strong part in our game and we've shown that over the past couple of weeks. "But you can't put a value on how much that actually helps when you cross that white line and you go play." And Hamill, who was due for his knee reconstruction surgery on Tuesday, will be there and ready to celebrate if the Victory get the job done. "I envision myself on stage with a winner's medal, with some crutches, in a lot of pain, dancing," he said. "I'll be running with my crutches. I'll just take enough painkillers."
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Best feeling I've had in my life'
Midfielder Dante Polvara: "I've been here four seasons, we've went through a lot. "The whole time I've been here, I've just wanted to give the fans something. Honestly, I never would've imagined."Midfielder Leighton Clarkson: "Absolutely incredible. No-one believed in us. "We always had that hope, that bit of faith that we could come here and do it. We did the plan to a T. We came into this game believing and we've done it. Everyone was unbelievable. I'm so happy."Defender Jack Milne: "This is the best feeling I've had in my life."We had the belief. All of us knew we were capable of coming here and getting this result. It's amazing. It's a dream come true."Goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov: "[I thought] just be the hero."Penalties is the opportunity to help your team. I'm super happy I managed to do that. Now it's time to party and celebrate."We have a short break and then it's onto next season."
News.com.au
22-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
‘The players are dirty': Legend's stunning reveal over Kevvie call as Broncos ‘ready to implode'
It has been revealed that Broncos stars are 'dirty' on senior club management after the officials blamed the players for the sacking of Kevin Walters. Back in October, the club pushed the narrative that Walters was axed for premiership winner Michael Maguire following player review. But Brisbane legend Gorden Tallis called out the club for not owning the decision to fire the coach who led them to a grand final just 12 months earlier. 'That was reverse engineered. The club didn't want to make the decision and the players are dirty about that,' Tallis said on NRL 360. 'The players that I've spoken to are dirty that they got blamed for it. The club should have come out and owned that decision, they shouldn't have put that on the players. 'That was unfair to put that on the players. There was no meeting, they weren't sitting around, they weren't face to face. And that's the coach's job. 'Wayne Bennett gets asked who does the reviews and Wayne says 'I do it'. 'He goes and talks to the players and they have a chat and that's how you fix things. That's what men generally do, winners get in groups and talk about it. 'I don't know what losers do.' The comments came in the wake of another club great, Allan Langer, delivering a rare public criticism of his beloved Broncos who have lost five of their past six games. 'They are lacking team spirit at the moment,' Langer told The Courier Mail. 'The senior players have to get the group together and work out what is going wrong. 'Because it's hard for the coaching staff or anyone outside the playing group. 'They have to realise what's happening out there and what they can do for each other to improve.' NRL 360 host Braith Anasta described the comments as 'a dagger' from who he described as arguably the club's greatest player. 'Alf doesn't like confrontation, he doesn't like talking about the club, he's made a point because he loves it so much, so that's really strong from Alfie,' Tallis said. 'Alf was the one who really built that club and they are disjointed, it doesn't look like they're playing together, they're playing in patches. 'Why aren't they connected? Why aren't they digging in? Because they got this new coach and that's what they were going to do, but they don't seem to be doing it.' There is chatter Maguire is training the squad too hard and James Hooper praised the coach's credentials but believes the situation has the potential to 'implode' the club. 'I like Madge and you can't fluke winning premierships and you can't fluke winning Origin series or Pacific Nations championships,' Hooper said. 'But there is a lot of noise coming out of the Broncos at the moment and there is a lot of unrest among the playing group. 'The only way he's going to fix it is by winning games because otherwise I do think it has the potential to really implode. 'Watching the Broncos play in Brisbane on Sunday, there were stages of the game where they genuinely did look quite fatigued and that's been a criticism that has followed Madge plenty of places. 'But that's a premiership-winning roster.' Anasta took a different view and Tallis emphasised successful teams all have fun. 'I think they're more mentally fatigued than physically,' he said. 'They just looked like deer in the headlights (last Sunday). Whenever they needed a certain moment or to come up with a certain play, they just looked stone-faced. 'You haven't seen them smile (lately).' 'You are allowed to enjoy it and all the great sides have a smile on their face,' Tallis responded. 'The Dogs, they enjoy working really hard for each other. The Raiders really enjoy going to the contest. 'Brisbane, it's like it's a chore for them at the moment, it's like everything they do has a price on it.'
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
🎧 'No sulkers' at Brighton
On the latest episode of Albion Unlimited, former Brighton players Guy Butters and Warren Aspinall discuss the team spirit at the club and impact of the have had more goal involvements via substitutes than any other team in the Premier League this season (21).Former defender Butters said: "When you are on the bench you're literally chomping to get on. You want to get on there and prove what you can do. Some players come on and sulk - I don't see that at Brighton - I see them all wanting to go on there and get in the box."You're always going to have certain personalities that clash in every single squad but this squad that we've got now, you haven't got many sulkers in there, it doesn't seem to have too many of those sort of players in there. That could go down as well to the scouting group, the people that do their homework on what a player is like not only on the pitch but away from it as well."Aspinall added: "We used to have a great team spirit, even if you weren't in the team. What I see now in this Brighton side is we've got no sulkers. We've got nobody thinking 'I'm on the bench, I'm sulking because I'm not playing'. Or someone going on there and not passing, waving their hand up in the air when they don't get the ball. I've not seen that for the last few months."Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds
