BLUE DO
Former Rangers ace Nathan Patterson in incredible bust-up with Everton boss Sean Dyche as training camp ‘slap’ backfires
The former Ibrox star and some of his team-mates didn't take it too well
FORMER Rangers hero Nathan Patterson was caught up in a shock 'altercation' with his manager Sean Dyche during Everton's Portuguese training camp, according to a report.
The Toffees are on an 11-match winless run - just one less than their worst Premier League record from the 1994/95 season.
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And things don't appear to be going to smoothly at the club's Portuguese training camp either.
That's because it was “marred by an altercation” between manager Sean Dyche and Scotland star Patterson, according to a report.
Dyche has taken his struggling squad overseas for the week in an effort to rebuild spirit.
But the Daily Mail claims that the training camp was dominated by an “altercation” between him and a number of his stars.
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This report states that Dyche “shocked his squad by aiming a jocular slap at the head of defender Patterson, 22, during a meal in the Algarve resort of Quinta do Lago”.
The 52-year-old is said to have connected with the Scottish international “more forcefully than he intended”, which left some players unimpressed.
That allegedly led to tempers becoming “sufficiently heated” before Everton captain James Tarkowski stepped in.
The 31-year-old centre-half took his former Burnley boss away from the scene “to allow any lingering ill-feeling to subside”.
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They left the table at which the players and staff were eating but returned to finish their meals with the rest of the party.
The report then claims that Dyche was understood to have apologised to Patterson.
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Dyche said his “intentions were harmless” and the evening was “good-natured” apart from this incident, which left the right-back “embarrassed to be the centre of attention”.
The Mail adds that Everton sources are adamant the incident was not a major bust-up and was just “a clumsy joke that backfired”.
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