5 best football excuses ever from Cavani’s birthday and Michael Jackson statue

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Footballers and managers are largely good at taking responsibility for a result, but there are some exceptions who will point the finger at, quite literally, anything else.

At a time where most people in the footballing world are media trained and will often reel off cliché’s like ‘we know we can do better’ and ‘we weren’t good enough on the night’, it is somewhat refreshing for some to play the blame game.

Recently, the congested fixture list has been the main issue for managers of the Top Six clubs, though that ship may have sailed now as normal routine returns.

But what are the best excuses ever? Daily Star takes a look…

Cavani’s birthday

Italian manager Walter Mazzarri has never been shy of letting the media know what he thinks, and who is to blame.

The 60-year-old has produced some of the most iconic excuses for results in years gone by, but you will struggle to find many better than his reasoning for Napoli’s Europa League defeat to Viktoria Plzen in 2013.

Speaking after the 3-0 loss, Mazzarri said: “You could see that tonight we didn’t go into the game with the right mindset, there wasn’t the right concentration, maybe we thought too much about Cavani’s birthday…”

Yes, you read that right. The manager blamed the birthday of now-Manchester United’s Edinson Cavani. Priceless.

Ball boys

It is no secret that Jose Mourinho loves a rant. The former Chelsea boss has had his fair share of hot-headed moments on the touchline in the Premier League, as well as extraordinary post-match rants.

But his best excuse came after his side, Real Madrid, suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in 2011, when he passed the blame on to the lack of ball boys at the Camp Nou.

He said: “Real Madrid gave a spectacular performance from the first to the last minute. We came here to play. What I’m about to say is not a criticism, I’m just stating a fact: there were no ball-boys in the second half, which is something typical of small teams when experiencing difficulties”.

Michael Jackson

Fulham’s statue of Michael Jackson outside Craven Cottage was iconic, and lucky it seems.

Although having the pop icon stood outside the ground confused many fans, and forever will, their former owner Mohamed Al Fayed has said that removing the statue cost Fulham their place in the Premier League.

Speaking after the London side were relegated after 13 years in the top flight, Al Fayed told the Press Association: “This statue was a charm and we removed the luck from the club and now we have to pay the price.

"When (Khan) asked me to move it I said, 'you must be crazy'. This is such a fantastic statue which the fans are crying out for.

"But now he has paid the price because the club has been relegated. He called me because he told me he wanted Michael to return. I told him, no way."

Fulham are currently on course to return to the Premier League, and shockingly, Michael Jackson still hasn’t returned which means the promotion would be down to the team’s footballing ability alone.

The weather

Mazzarri was at it again in 2014 when he looked to the heavens as the reason why his Inter Milan side could not beat Hellas Verona.

Mauro Icardi scored a brace for Inter before Gary Medel was sent off with 39 minutes left on the clock. Nicolas Lopez then equalised in the 89th minute.

But rather than blaming the fact that his side had been reduced to ten men for an extended spell of the match, the former Watford boss said: “We created a lot, then the rain came…”

Cold feet

Jurgen Klopp loves an excuse. Since coming to the Premier League he has blamed the weather, the pitches, the referees and the television broadcasting companies for the outcome of some Liverpool games.

But, perhaps, his most hilarious excuse came in January 2020.

The Reds lost 4-1 to Manchester City, with usually-reliable goalkeeper Alisson making two howlers which both resulted in goals.

But it wasn’t a lapse in concentration that caused the Brazilian to make the errors, nor was it simply because he was having an ‘off day’. Klopp believes it was because his goalkeeper had cold feet.

"We can't hide (the mistakes), we don't have to talk around it. It's true as well.

"We didn't give a lot of options, especially in the first goal. In the second goal he just mis-hit the ball,” the former Borussia Dortmund boss said.

"There's no real reason, maybe he had cold feet. It sounds funny but could be.

"Ali has saved our life plenty of times, today he made two mistakes. That's how it is."

• Jose Mourinho
• Jurgen Klopp
• Michael Jackson
• Premier League

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