Manchester United physiotherapist Rod Thornley has recalled being on the receiving end of a WWE-style suplex from Jaap Stam.
The Dutchman was known as one of the hardest characters around during his time at Old Trafford, which ended in controversial circumstances in 2001. Stam was part of a hugely successful dressing room, helping the club claim the treble in 1999.
Once upon a time, at a house party hosted by Gary Neville, the centre-half decided to show off his physical attributes. Former employee Thornley, a well-liked member of the backroom staff, has recalled Stam picking him up and performing a wrestling move on him which left him speechless.
Thornley told Undr the Cosh : "I think if you cross the wrong people in that dressing room you were gone very quickly. I mean look at Jaap Stam. That's a big example of it. He said some bad things about the Nevilles and bang he's gone out the club. He was a great lad. I remember him f***ing picking me up at a house party once and suplexing me on the sofa. I was like: 'What you doing? We're in the middle of a house party!'"
When asked how he reacted, Thronley added: "(I did) Nothing! Just walked past him. It was a big house party at Gary Neville's house and he just picked me up and f**ing suplexed me onto the sofa... (I said) 'What the f*** Japp!'" The former physio was fortunate that Stam's antics were performed on a sofa, rather than the floor, giving him something of a soft landing.
Stam would end up departing Manchester in 2001 as the club accepted an offer from Italian giants Lazio. The defender was still at the peak of his powers, later going on to play for AC Milan, and left a sizeable hole in Sir Alex Ferguson's defence.
The Scot was quick to green light Stam's sale, but has since confessed it was a decision he got wrong. He told MUTV: "When I think of disappointments, obviously Jaap Stam was always a disappointment to me, I made a bad decision there."
Stam previously said in his autobiography: "I soon realised the club wanted to get rid of me. They also needed the money. Very soon the book became an issue again. It led to a conflict between me and the manager."
The Dutchman also added: "He told me that I had to be transferred. Then he said, 'Will you please move to Lazio quickly?' I agreed to do it. Right there and then. One quick conversation in my car at a petrol station in Manchester was enough for me to leave that big club. When I think about it now, and I have never talked about it before, I find it unbelievable I let that, as a player, happen to me."
