Gallas Cancels Interviews Due To Wenger's Intervention
If you thought you’ve heard the last of William Gallas attacking Arsenal’s young players in the press, then you’re very far off the mark. Today, The Times published an interview with the 31-year-old skipper and it appears the Frenchman has launched another attack on Arsene Wenger’s policies at the club.
We won’t go too into that today, as an article on the ‘Gallas-attack’ will be posted tomorrow morning.
What Gooner Talk can reveal, is that Gunners boss Arsene Wenger told Gallas to immediately come back from International Duty, and not undertake the interview Gallas had already planned with French radio station RMC and presenter Philippe Auclair.
Auclair, who recently spoke to Gooner Talk on a two-part interview, told RMC that Gallas was forced to cancel several interviews with the French press as Wenger wanted all the players he could have back from Europe in time for Saturday’s crucial league game with Manchester City.
According to several other French sources close to Gallas, Auclair and the blog, a meeting was subsquently called for between Wenger and Arsenal’s skipper. In that meeting, Gallas explained what he truthfully said, and whether anything was taken out of context.
So, expect an announcement in the coming days from Le Boss and Gallas. An apology looks on the cards, but then again, Arsene usually comes out with something like, “I have no problem with William, I spoke to him yesterday, he is fine.” So watch this space!
Stay tuned to Gooner Talk, tomorrow morning Cade Roberts will give his views on the ‘Gallas-attack’.
These few days are crucial:
Either Gallas loses the captaincy from the result of this meeting or Wenger listens and their could be a change in attitude. I don’t know what will happen, but it isn’t looking good for Gallas
I totally agree mate. One thing this club needs at the moment is stability, so, I think it’s neccessary to make any changes ASAP before it really takes it toll on the squad.
Arsenal will not win anything this season. watch my words. Fans should stand up and demand more. It is 4 years now since Arsenal won something and unless the management changes some of their policies especially regarding transfers then we will wait for a long time before winning something.
But this is going to cause mumbo jumbo. If Gallas loses it, he wiill surely become disillusional and sulk which could cause HUGE PROBLEMS in the short term.
But if he stays we could be hearing a lotmore of unrest from the Emirates. What happened to the unity and togetherness of the squad. Thank God AW saw this and called for talks
jullo, it hasn’t been four years, it’s been THREE. I wish people would get this straight. It’s been THREE seasons since we’ve won a trophy — the FA Cup in 2005. Yeah, yeah, it was a poor performance from us, we won it on penalties, but it was a major domestic cup trophy and we won it. In 2005.
Gallas has to go,I would be happy for his contract to be terminated NOW and not even wait ’til January..The guy is a disgrace to our club, the worst captain I have seen since I began supporting in 1972.
He moans about the players, he runs to the French press with every story, he is poor on and off the pitch…We support a proud club, he has disgraced the club with his constant moaning……Kick him out..
haha, even a facebook group has been made now!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=96893825435
I believe Gallas is right to talk out if someone is causing disharmony in the camp, its no good pretending everything is fine, lets find out where the problem is and sort it out
Maybe Gallas can be sent out to Milan in exchange for getting Senderos back early. He may be mentally unstable and a bit of donkey, but he would never undermine his teammates and air dirty laundry in public.
Also, despite his school-boy errors and bambi on ice tendencies, we have a superior defensive record with him in the side.
In fact, he was immense in the FA Cup in 05 and played a big part in the CL Final. Take him over Silvestre any and every day. He and Djourou could eventually form and good partnership.
He also seems to get along with his teammates and encourages them instead of berating them in newspapers.
Jo- Gallas can talk, fight or take a dump in the dressing room but not in public he has no right to do that.He gave the press the player’s age he might aswell give them the names of the players involved in this fight as well their telephone numbers. all I can say this is purely to to put the blame on the young players well I’m sorry he is a shit captain and that fact will remain.instead of protecting his team mates he is disrespecting them even more. How do you think the players concerned would feel about him talking to the press? Shit.
If Gallas stays captain then he has to show leadership in his play and set an example in that way, not just shout at your team and get up for a few corners – ( although he has scored a couple )
Personally i would get Toure back in the side and make him captain, he was immense before Gallas arrived.
Gallas is more the loose cannon than anyone would of thunk no? What a donkey. Happily this gives Wenger the perfect opportunity to strip him of the captaincy without much backlash from, well, anyone tbh.
I don’t think its a question of transfer policy. The only criticisms I have, regarding Wenger, are who should have been captin (since Vieira) and his substitutions during matches. People have probably heard me gripe about this on other blogs, but I’m still saying that Gilberto should have been made captin; the previous year, he was instrumental in replacing Henry (another player I don’t agree should have been made skipper) as captain during his injury.
As it stands now, there isn’t anyone capable of being handed the armband. The only person I would consider is Toure, because he has the best attitude and sets a great example, but his recent form is questionable, and the captain basically is an automatic start, although I wouldn’t mind seeing Almunia with the armband. The only alternative is to make a young captain, a la Adams (I think), or Maldini, in which case it would be Fabregas, but like Toure, has recent inconsistent form and deserves a rest.
Also, who does everyone think was the 25 year old that had a go at Gallas? The only players who are 25 are RVP, Eboue, and Sagna and I have a distinct feeling that it may unfortunately have been RVP. He was known for having a difficult temperament. Given, that was the reason that Feyenoord allowed him to leave according to reports.
Arsenal’s worst captian by a mile. Big mouth and no HEART.
Well there is definitely a problem in the camp and the fact that William comes out to say this in the press shows that it is not being managed. Till it is sorted out, we will keep slipping down the table. Gallas is an easy target so everyone will look at taking a swipe at him in the short term. But if indeed there was a disruption that is not getting handled, and he is taking all the slack for the clubs poor form then he should be allowed to defend himself.
Gallas spent time as a chelski playa studying our young playaz and got to know their weaknesses under jose maurinho..These am afraid have manifested so much into he’s mind he can’t find any other way to turn things round so as to believe in the team.The man simply has no belief in the squad and it won’t change any time soon.
How quickly we forget how formidable gallas has been for both chelsea and arsenal. We all know what he can do when he is motivated. The problem is not with the players anymore. It is unfortunately with the system. Clichy and Sagna were blazing last year. This year they look out of form. The midfiled is thin and fragile like a napkin. Our center backs look to score more than our strikers. Our strikers play better in National team games, or Champions league, but don’t show up on Saturday. Blaming the captain is not the issue. We need to look at the whole system. The owner(s), coach, investers and ask some serious questions about our club. This transition period is not working. Time to ask questions to those at the top.
Ok lets look forward. I think we should play Djourou and Gallas at the back and incorporate Toure as defensive mid. He is quick and can close down players and reads the game well.
I think everyone whose slatting Gallas is wrong. I’m infact relieved that now I know where the problem is and dissapointed that Wenger has not been telling us anything (is the Arsenal way hidding the truth and procrastinating and not solving the defensive midfield position or is it stubbornness i.e Wenger not listening to anyone or the Board failing to lisen to reason?) Wenger should have shipped out Van Persie and not Flamini and Hleb. Look at the way he walks and carries himself? as if he is untouchable, 4 seasons of nothing and he is untouchable for what? We started last season without him and look where we were. The selfish cant doesnt want to pass but wants to pound the ball with little success. Gallas is right if Wenger cant solve it lets put it in the open and stop saying he is the one who is failing
marcus we have not won the MAIN cup for 5 years now.. we are not winning this season as well and out of those 5 seasons we have really only competed in 2 seasons..not good enough… having said that, now more than ever it is time to get vocal and support the team..
How is talking in the public going to solve the problem. I think Gallas has just made a big mistake.
If there is a problem Gallas should solve it in the dressing room, if that fails then i think there is somewhere he can go within the AFC system rather than talking to the press as if they would help him.
I think Gallas has lost the respect of the entire team and i feel that he must be lonely in there. Players have come out and openly talked about his debacle at Birmingham, they have even come out and talked about how they will be happy to be captains. How can you even think that when there is a captain. Maybe this explains the attitude of some players, Fabregas being one of them.
One thing that i know is once you lose the respect of your team mates is you can run trhe entire pitch for 90min trying to inspire others to emulate you but you will fail dismally.
He wants people to fight, at the same time he is putting them down.
If i was AW i would relieve him of the captains now and sell him in January.
So he’s had a go in public at RVP80k and also at Nasri, simply to promote the book he has coming out. And he had interviews lined up too, where he doubtless would have been running down other colleagues. This is not the Arsenal way, and it’s a defining moment for Wenger, who hates this kind of confrontation. There are depressing similarities between the erratic performances of the French national side and the Arsenal side, and Gallas is at the heart of that. Who the hell else do we have though? this should all have been sorted out in the summer – yet another example of problems that have been ignored by a manager too busy and trying to do too much.
The culprit is the person who gave Gallas the job in the 1st place and contiues to keep him in the job after last Year’s debacle.He has always had a big mouth and Wenger knew this when giving the job to a Chelsea player that had been at the club a year.
It is interesting to note that most fans see WGs comments in a very negative light. I am one of the few who does not. Why? Because he is human like the others and has made his share of mistakes but he is also a sincere guy who really wants to win.
He is the only Arsenal player to go public recently and critique his own performances.
His most recent comments may well be as much as 50% accurate! we do not know for sure but if there is some truth there it might just hit home to the rest of the squad and in particular to the disruptive players that they cant successfully hide from all of the criticism either.
Years of work experience have demonstrated to me how damaging disruptive attitudes can be to team spirit anywhere.
Arsenal’s problems are first and foremost that they take the field expecting to win, score first, score second, then go home with 3 points. Championship winning teams take the field AIMING to win, to score first second etc. But also, they take the field expecting to fight from start to finish, they respect the other team so highly that they consistently believe opponents will come out fighting from the kick off, that is why they win convincingly so often if the opponent does not prepare that way he is demolished. Championship winners also know that during the course of a season dispite best efforts, opponents will score first many times. So they are fully ready to deal with that when they have to. That is the difference between this Arsenal team and the ones of the past.
WG is a target because his style would be best suited playing alongside a towering physical center back who can mix it well with physical strikers like Drogba etc. Gallas is an excellent ball player with fighting qualities but he is not big enough and physical enough to do the same job Sol Campbell did. But because he is captain everyone looks for the same qualities in him, when they dont see it they question his captaincy too, understandable. The same defensive shortcomings apply to Gallas’s center back partners, they are excellent speedy footballers but they are not towering physical presences and when paired with each other against physical a front line they lack that one ingredient. Maybe Djourou can become an exception?
Most fans seem to feel that unrest should be covered up! What will people think? Makes the team ‘look’ bad etc. It seems like these fans prefer a ‘play pretend all is perfect’ thing when everyone knows it is not so. What good is an image like that? If all is not well, then all is not well, end of story. Whether the public know it or not wont change Arsenal’s League position.
Perhaps public knowledge of issues might actually have a positive effect! It may bring more pressure on the Manager and especially the high earning Superstars in question to recognize that it takes hard work to win championships. Having to get team captains to break up half time dressing room fights with 45 minutes still to play suggests to me that the players heads are not focused on 90 minutes. The Man Utd result is evidence of this, great fighting team performance, all about earning the millions they are paid each year.
Fanatical Gunner.
gallas won the championship with chelsea, playing with profesionals who know how to get dirty when they travel to stoke, who always protest a bad decision by the referee and have intelligent football minds and skills but yet are willing to use their body strength to win a game..sport is about winning, it is a battle..it is not playing a bunch of talented kids with the aim of giving them experience so they might be world class one day…(and face the possibility of one or two good ones leaving the club each year for success elsewhere)..wenger was right when he said the current team is good enough to win us the league….he did not say they will most probably win it…
i feel gallas is like us..he cant understand why the players and the manager can tolerate being outplayed by fulham and aston villa…
if there was a arguement during half time against spurs, which was such an intense match, then gallas is right…these boys dont have their mind on football because of the high wages..
when teams like aston villa travel to stamford bridge and ol trafford they hardly have time to put together 5 passes…but here at the emirates agbonlahor was happily running down the wings, making gallas and silvestre follow him like a child after an ice cream van..this is what needs to be corrected first…if there is nochange then think about getting players who wont let agbonlahor do that
Everything Gallas said is probably true, but these kids in our time need to realise they’re men playing in the Arsenal first team. He said it out of frustration, but as captain he shouldn’t have done it in the press. Only Roy Keane can get away with that!
The performance i saw against villa was worse than the 4-0 against manutd last year and the much worse than our thrashing against them 7 years ago. Never in the last ten years have i seen an arsenal team so bad defensively and playing with no heart wotsoeva. Ironically Gallas plays with too much heart.
THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD.
AT LAST THE USELESS FRENCH PRICK IS OUT.
BIG TEXAS NEIL,THE MIGHTY QUIN, THE GREATEST GUNNER EVER IN MY OPINION FRANKIE MCL. FAE SHAWFIELD,TONEY THE LONELY , DENNIS ,PATRICK, WHATS GOING ON ??? BUCK ME WE HAVE NO MEN FIGHTING FOR THE GUNNERS ANYMORE, JUST WEE BOYS THAT HAVE LITTLE EXPERIENCE OF FIGHTING.CAN YOU IMAGINE A TEAM WITH PATRICK , FRANK, DENNIS,LIAM, PAT R. OK ,MARTIN K. GAEMS A BOGEY
YES ,IT IS NOW TIME TO REALISE
WE NEED WINNERS TO PLAY FOR US NOT TALENTED SCHOOLKIDS ANYMORE
yup!!! arsenal badly need some experienced legs………