Soccer:Stoke manager Tony Pulis has issued a statement expressing his disappointment that news of a reported dressing-room bust-up between Abdoulaye Faye and Glenn Whelan was made public.
Potters captain Faye and midfielder Whelan allegedly clashed at half-time and following the 7-0 defeat by Chelsea on Sunday and had to be separated by team-mates and backroom staff.
Pulis, who did not confirm or deny the reports, said on www.stokecityfc.com: “I maintain that what happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room. Both Glenn Whelan and Abdoulaye Faye are disappointed that again the confines of our sanctuary have been breached.
“The lads have also expressed their own disappointment but understand that there are obviously one or two people who, for their own reasons, feel it necessary to leak out this information.”
The altercation is said to have taken place after an alleged row between Faye and Whelan in the dressing room at half-time erupted again at the final whistle, although the seeds for the argument had been sown before a ball had even been kicked.
Whelan (26), was apparently frustrated with Faye’s attitude before the game because the Senegalese had been the only player taking part in a warm-up drill in the dressing room wearing flip-flops rather than boots.
It is alleged the Stoke midfielder felt Faye was not approaching the match in the right way and, when the defender subsequently lasted nine minutes against Chelsea before pulling up with a thigh strain, he took the opportunity at half-time to tell his team-mate that his failure to take things seriously was contributing to his injury record.
The 32-year-old centre-half is said to have reacted furiously and squared up to Whelan, asking the Republic of Ireland international how many games he had played in the Premier League. It is alleged Whelan stood his ground and told the former Bolton and Newcastle player, who was being restrained by Ricardo Fuller, that he should speak to him at the end of the game and not during the interval, at which point Stoke were losing 3-0.
A club source suggests Faye decided to take Whelan up on his offer at full-time and, after Pulis had finished his post-match team-talk and confirmed the players would be forfeiting their day off because of their abject performance, the player confronted Whelan again. The Irishman reiterated he had been unimpressed with the Senegalese’s attitude before the game and in training and Faye responded by, in the words of a club source, “belting him in the face”.
Most of the players and some of the backroom staff then became involved as they separated Faye and Whelan.