Great Vengeance and Furious Anger

Friday, 21 November 08, 08:05 AM · Comments(0)

And so it begins.

The backlash that has been building ever since February when William Gallas threw the mother of all strops, the Arsenal community at large have reacted with great vengeance and furious anger to William's words. Every single Arsenal blog I have read, including this one by Jamrock Rover, wants Gallas stripped of the captaincy. It is becoming difficult to argue with this point of view, even those critical of the manner of Gallas' comments know there is at least a kernel of truth in them, but surely Gallas would have realised the effect his words would have on everyone connected with the club? Oh to have been a fly on the wall at Shenley this morning.

Kevin Whitcher, as usual, resists the temptation to go hysterical. His is an excellent summation of events, and I always seem to find myself nodding in agreement when reading what he has to say, other than his piece, according to Myles Palmer, the new captain is in the process of being, democratically, chosen. If this is true, I wonder how long it will take for the white smoke to emanate from the Shenley chimneys.

"Furious Arsene" has, in my opinion, brought this situation completely on himself. I, unlike many others, had no trouble with his decision to award the captaincy to Gallas instead of Gilberto last summer. It was obvious that Gilberto was no longer considered "untouchable" within the first team and so there were, as when Thierry Henry was given the armband in 2005, a shortage of genuine candidates to take over the captaincy. For some reason, much as I'd be delighted for Kolo Toure if he was to be given the band, I don't think he's captaincy material. In fact, if you looked around the team in 2005, 2007 and now, where were, and where are, the leaders? Is Cesc a leader? If he is, I feel sure he'll be leading by example, not by shouting at people. In any case, do we even know whether the catalan genius will be here come the summer? In my eyes, it's scary to envisage a situation where you haven't just lost 4 captains (5 if you count Gilberto) in 4 years, but two in little over 6 months. My own preference would be for Gael Clichy. Surely the ultimate in leading by example, if a little quiet and also as lucky as Larry David.

I'm getting off the point a little, my point is this. The manager is the one who has stripped away the experience, the leaders, of our team in favour of a footballing kindergarten. It is absolutely, I feel, his fault that Arsenal Football Club finds itself in the position it is in this morning. It his fault that Gallas has been left as the only senior figure in a dressing room full of young lads, it is his fault that William Gallas probably looked around the training ground this morning and thought to himself "How the hell has this happened?" Or the french equivalent. Whilst Nigel Winterburn seems to think Gallas will be kept on; Perry Groves has branded the frenchman a "disgrace", invoking "the Arsenal captains of the past".

Certainly Thierry Henry must be smiling ruefully to himself this afternoon, perhaps he's even put a call into one of his best mates. Even this Arsenal legend knows how the backlash can be if you break ranks- things were never the same for him at the club after that Sun article- this is the only time I'll mention that rag in this blog. I wonder what Patrick Vieira and Tony Adams make of it all, to me it's an unholy mess.

Apparently, we've got a game against Manchester City and our last remaining emergency right back is injured. Kolo Toure has a calf strain. This really is beginning to echo that last season at Highbury, isn't it?

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