Gallas, Please Leave. NOW!

First of all, apologies for the two day absence the Burgervan. While I would love a job thinking and writing about the Arsenal, unfortunately that is not (currently) the case, so occasionally the needs of my real career jump the queue and force me off the blog. Two days of training courses and no internet saw to that this week. What a week it’s been though.

Walcott out for three months with what Arsene is calling a congenital defect. We needn’t fear though. The days of Bryan Robson are thankfully past. Once Walcott has his shoulder problem fixed, as he did before, the problem will be a thing of the past. The only worry is of course the fact that our most impressive player this term is now out of the picture. There has been talk of compensation, if the Arsenal don’t make a claim then they are mad and throwing our money down the toilet. I’m sure that they will try and get back as much as they can from the F.A.s insurers.

I remember writing at the beginning of the season, after the fateful and disappointing closure of the transfer window that our squad was incredibly thin and that any injuries would be correspondingly magnified in terms of their consequences for the team. Surprise surprise that has happened. We all knew it would. It’s just bad planning. I have said many times that Wenger MUST stay and I will continue to say this, but if I had made equivalent errors in planning and forecasting in my job, I would have been asked serious questions by the Man. I wonder if the Arsenal board will grow some cahunas and have a little chat with le Boss? Probably not, they are all scared witless that he will up and leave if they say anything vaguely critical to him.

Toure is also out by the way, which is badly timed with William Gallas fulfilling his destiny as the worst Arsenal captain in over a decade. So, therein lies the link to the news story of the week, William Gallas and his stupid big mouth. We all know the guy is short of a few spark plugs upstairs but his latest antics are beyond even the excuse of his abnormally low IQ. I wondered what the aim of his outburst was, that is until I watched the BBC news this morning, guess what, Gallas launches his biography today. Presumably ghost written, I’m not aware of any publishing houses that accept manuscripts in crayon. Does anybody else think that club policy should vet players interviews or ensure that a member of the Arsenals press team is present at these things? I can imagine the wily gallic journalist teasing these quotes out of poor simple Gallas with the ease of stealing candy from a baby. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they paid Gallas for the interview in Haribo Starmix. Gallas probably thought he’d got a good deal because he haggled a bag of Tangfastics out of them as well.

So what is all the fuss about I hear you asking? Well, Gallas has given an interview on the eve of his (pop-up) book launch saying all kind of things about his team mates (probably RVP and/or Ade in particular) and about a lack of dressing room harmony. Instead of talking about this in a closed environment to his team mates it is now splashed across the media, who in fairness to them have all rounded on William and condemned him for being unprofessional. Arsene Wenger must be livid. Gallas must be stripped of the captaincy. He absolutely must be. In the opinion of the Burgervan he should also be dropped (despite our lack of resources) and sold in the transfer window. There are times when principles and morals come first and this is one of those times. This sort of behaviour cannot and must not be allowed. We all know that Wenger doesn’t like being mean, but guess what Arsene it’s time to put your foot down and get rid of this Typhoid Mary from our dressing room.

Gallas’s interview did contain some valid points. We do need to fight more, we do need to balance our beautiful game with a fighting spirit; we do need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and concentrate on the opposition; and we do definitely need to drag ourselves out of this lethargy that we descend into when we play the ‘lesser teams’.

Courtesy of the Telegraph website, here is the gist of Gallas’s comments:

When talking about unrest in the dressing room: “When, as captain, some players come up to you and talk to you about a player ... complaining about him ... and then during the match you speak to this player and the player in question insults us, there comes a time where we can no longer comprehend how this can happen. I am trying to defend myself a bit without giving names. Otherwise I’m taking it all [the blame]. It’s very frustrating. I’m 31, the player is six years younger than me.”

A clear allusion to RVP or Ade here folks. Talk to the player, take it to the boss if necessary, but don’t tell the press William, it is unprofessional and disrespectful. That’s not the way to win the players respect is it.

On Arsenal’s shocking draw with Sperz: “There was a problem at half-time. The only thing that I could say at half-time was ‘Guys, we resolve these problems after the match, not at half-time.”

Fair enough, where were you in the last five minutes though William? When they scored two goals in injury time? Why not try leading by example rather than leading by being a whiny little oik. The irony of course is that Gallas is one of the oldest squad members but also the least mature (now Lehmann has left).

This is what our captain (spew) had to say about the trophyless last three years: “I have to win something this year. I have to win something, Arsenal has to win something. It’s four or five years since Arsenal won anything — 2004 [the league title]. That’s nearly five years, and that’s not good. For me the title is not over, it’s true that we are nine points behind Chelsea, but you have to be optimistic and you can’t give up. “[Four defeats] is a lot, but it’s a long season. I think it will be very tight this year and we will have to hope that Chelsea draw a few games and have a few defeats.”

Well, Arsenal is an afterthought for him. He is selfish, of course he wants to win for himself but come on William, it should be the team first, it should always be the team first, particularly if you are the captain.

So what next? Against Man City Wenger must take away the Captaincy from le gros bebe and give it to someone deserving, probably Fabregas or maybe Clichy. It’s time for Wenger to stand up and provide some leadership himself. Strength is what this team need, and currently Wenger is the only source of that. As a fan I want to see the manager take control of this Gallas problem and take control of the obvious problems within the squad. If there is one thing that the idiot Gallas has shown here it is that the harmony that the manager has been talking about in the squad isn’t quite as harmonious as he would have us believe. We all knew this to be the case, but now its out in the open maybe he can do something about it.