Prem icon Chimbonda had dreadful first-half – but thought rollocking wasn’t real

Former Premier League star Pascal Chimbonda once reacted to a half-time rollocking from his manager by winking – as he thought it wasn't for him.

The one-time France international spent most of his career in England. He clocked up just shy of 150 Prem appearances, most memorably playing for Tottenham but also enjoying top-flight spells at Wigan, Sunderland and Blackburn.

During the latter years of his career he slipped down the leagues and intriguingly found himself at Doncaster Rovers for the 2011/12 Championship season.

His manager in Yorkshire was Dean Saunders, who shared a hilarious story about the retired right-back when appearing on Wrexham fan podcast Fearless in Devotion this week.

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"I’m manager of Doncaster, I’ve got Pascal Chimbonda playing for me," Sauders recalled. "So Pascal is brilliant travelling with the ball going down the right.

"When he’s got the ball at his feet and he’s travelling with it down the right, chop it inside to strikers, he could get to the byline, he could play one-twos, he could get fouled, brilliant footballer. Wasn’t so keen on defending.

"One day on the training pitch, I shouted something to him and he’s shouted back at me what you shouldn’t shout to the manager. He’s shouted them two swear words across to me.

What do you remember of Chimbonda in the Premier League? Let us know in the comments section.

"So I went 'stop the game, stop the game'. I walked over, because you can’t allow players to talk to you like that when you’re the manager because I’ve got young players there.

"I’m walking over thinking I could make this worse. I said 'Pascal, don’t ever say that to me on a training pitch. You can’t win the argument. Even if you’re right, I can’t allow you to win that argument. I’ve got young players here’.

"Everyone could hear what I was saying, so I turned him away, put my arm on his shoulder and went 'Pascal, listen, if I criticise you, because you’re the player you are, the world star you are, I know you can take the criticism.

"'So whatever I say to you, just take it on the chin. Don’t answer me back, and by the way on Saturday’s I might not be talking to you, I might be talking to the lad who’s sat next to you who can’t take criticism'. So he’s gone ‘ok gaffer, sorry’.

"We played Ipswich on the Saturday, he gives both goals away. First half, 2-0 down. I come in at half-time. ‘Right, everyone in the room.

"'Pascal, talk me through that 45 minutes you’ve just put in there'. And he went like this to me (winks). All the players could see him winking at me.

"He’s there like ‘I know you’re not talking about me, you’re talking about him’. And I couldn’t say ‘I’m talking about you, don’t wink at me’. So it backfired on me, I had to go off on a tangent."

Chimbonda made just 16 appearances for Doncaster and his career largely fizzled out thereafter. He initially retired in 2015 but twice came back to play in the English non-league, most recently for Ashton Town in 2019.

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