Five times pre-season friendlies have turned ugly with Leeds, Chelsea, West Brom…

Pre-season friendlies should be a way to get your legs pumped, increase your fitness and be match sharp before the start of the new season. A nice calm run. No blasties, no massive tackles, no big risks.

It doesn’t always work that way though, does it? For some players (and fans, for that matter), there is no such thing as a friendly. If a game is worth playing, it’s worth playing right. We understand that. This is how sports should be. It’s easy to say until your star striker is split in half by a third-rate Bulgarian midfielder.

This pre-season seems to have been more violent than most so far. It’s like the damn wild west out there. Punches are thrown, feet are wiped, controversy is everywhere you look. Let’s take a look at what happened — we’ll throw some classic clips in there for you, too, because we’re nice like that. Nicer than this lot, anyway.

Read the article at Planet Football.