Former England striker Andy Carroll says Fabio Capello once accused him of drinking heavily and sleeping with older women, despite Carroll insisting he had done neither.
Carroll, 37, made nine appearances for England and has described two confrontations with Capello in his newly published autobiography, Owning It.
The first came after Carroll, then a Newcastle United player, received his maiden England call-up for a match against France. The selection followed England’s departure from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa four months earlier.
Carroll said Capello, now 80, was unimpressed when he used his phone during a training camp, even though he had arrived at the team meeting 15 minutes early.
“The manager, Fabio Capello, was a bit mad. I was sitting on the floor looking at my phone, and Capello walked in, came straight towards me, and snatched the phone out of my hand,” Carroll wrote.
“‘We’re working hard!’ he yelled. ‘You’re so disrespectful, using your phone! Put it away!’ With that, he threw the phone at my chest.”
The incident left Carroll confused, while his team-mate Ashley Cole also appeared surprised and concealed his own phone beneath his shirt, according to the former striker.
A separate exchange focused on Carroll’s reputation away from football. He had already become known for heavy drinking when Capello confronted him about his behaviour.
“As soon as I walked into this meeting with Capello, he started lecturing me. ‘You’re always in the media for drinking and sleeping with older women,’ he said. ‘You need to stop,’” Carroll recalled.
“‘What?’ I said. ‘I’ve never done that.’
“‘Yes, you have, you just have. Drinking and sleeping with older women…’ That wasn’t me at all… I was thinking, ‘What is this guy talking about? Who told him I slept with older women? Did he confuse me with a teammate?’ In the end, I just had to accept it. ‘Okay, fine,’ I said. ‘It won’t happen again…’”
The accounts are among the latest revelations in Carroll’s autobiography.
He previously wrote that he had been sexually assaulted by a celebrity friend. Carroll also admitted that, as a young player, he was permitted to travel to Ibiza after being sent home from an England youth-team training camp.