Former Wanderers captain Robbie Cornthwaite says Josep Gombau immediately ‘rubbed people the wrong way’ when he arrived at the Western Sydney club.

Gombau took over from caretaker-coach Hayden Foxe halfway through last season after Tony Popovic left the club on the eve of their new campaign.

Speaking candidly on the Fox Football Podcast, the now retired Cornthwaite went into detail about how Gombau polarised the dressing room and elaborated on the events leading up to his departure.

Gombau barely lasted six months at the Wanderers before getting the sack. Source: News Corp Australia

“There were a couple of things he said in the first team meeting that was as if the football we had just been playing — we were undefeated in five matches — was rubbish and that all of a sudden we were going to be playing the best football in the A-League. That upset a few people,” Cornthwaite said.

“Throughout your career you have managers where you do things on the training ground and you just scratch your head and you think, ‘what are we doing this for? It’s never going to work in a million years’.

Cornthwaite left the Wanderers for Malaysian club Perak TBG soon after Gombau’s arrival and while he says he holds nothing personally against the coach — who was sacked at the end of last season — he did disclose a conversation the two of them had prior to his departure.

Cornthwaite left the Wanderers soon after Gombau arrived. Source: News Corp Australia

“There was one particular occasion, and I haven’t told this story publicly before, where towards the end of my time I had a one-on-one meeting with him and he asked if I believed in what he was doing and I said no,” Cornthwaite said.

“As the captain of the club that was a pretty big thing to say, so I fully expected I’d be leaving the club. But then we had a team meeting and he told everyone what I’d just said, so for me that lost the whole group. And then the following week, four of five days later, I was still in the starting line up.

“Once I left it was all good. He offered me a new deal and I was going to stay and at the last moment I received an offer from overseas, so I left.

“That’s the nuts and bolts of it. I wish him all the best, I’ve got no personal issues with him”.

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