In 2003, Manchester United's Scottish coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, kicked a shoe that hit David Beckham in the forehead, creating a gash requiring two stitches. Last weekend, another Scotsman, Dundee United manager Gordon Chisholm, one-upped Ferguson with a shoe-kick that struck his club's new Spanish forward David Fernandez in the chin and caused a wound requiring three stitches.
The Ferguson incident took place in the locker room when the raging boss booted a shoe on the floor following a 2-0 loss to Arsenal. Chisholm kicked a water bottle on the sideline and his own shoe flew off his foot.
''I apologized to him [Fernandez] immediately and there's no problem between us, although it's not the best way to kick off our working relationship,'' Chisholm said.
Chisholm, of course, didn't leave it at that, resorting to the time-honored coach's tradition of blaming the ref:
''I felt some of the referee's [Charlie Richmond] decisions were very strange. I took my frustrations out on a bottle and David caught the worst of it.''