Written by Guest Blog : armourysquare
So it has been confirmed that Bill has gone to the Spuds. In his 4 year tenure here at the Emirates I have to admit I did see him as an influential player in the team. Lets look at the what he did for the club.
Among the highlights, he scored a vital goal against Chelsea and made us win one derby. Sometimes, he put in a cracker of a defensive performance, which frankly is worth applauding. Now, to the point. When Arsenal fans hear that a guy like RVP will leave the club or Cesc shall be leaving , then a cloud of doubt begins to rise in their minds. Whether we can win a title this season or not ? Now, William Gallas has left the club, but I don’t think Gooners around the world will get the same feeling. Its not that we didn’t respect the man as a player, but the fact that he screwed up the morale of players in the dressing room, made public comments criticising the team, began questioning the team, was what pissed us off. ( I mean that is what we do, when the team plays badly ).
Now lets take a few incidents in which Gallas really pissed me off. Last season, in the mauling we got against Man Utd, he played behind the front 2 strikers more often rather than in the heart of the defence, as a result of which, we got the 3rd goal by Park – ‘a fantastic counter-attack.’You know as a matter of fact, he did the same-thing for France, and look what where that got them. In February 2008, he sat down on the pitch after Gael gave a penalty away against Birmingham and cried. And 8 months later, this is what he said :
“We are not brave enough in battle. I think we need to be soldiers. To be champions, you have to play big matches every weekend and fight,”
“We are coming up against teams who are not scared to play football against us, who are not scared to take us on at our place, and this is becoming dangerous for Arsenal.
“We have to be warriors. That is how the team will forge their character and experience.”
You know, the above comments from him would have been useful to pep-up a squad, but why was it seen as disturbance. Well, actually its quite simple. The answer is that the man had no idea of timing, no idea when to say what and when to do what. Consider Birmingham in February of 2008. The same day Dudu got that sick tackle. After Gael gave the penalty away, why did he have to sit down and weep ? That day our title challenge ended. The same fixture, same place, 2 years later, we drew…and guess what, our title ‘coincidently’ ended, but did you see any Arsenal player on the pitch, depressed?
Yeah, I am sure whatever the team had to feel or do was sorted out in the dressing room, but not in front of millions of people watching. Why ? Because that would disturb the confidence of the team, and it could get screwed. If the captain of your club reacts in that way, then would you expect the young players of the team to emanate confidence. Moreover, because of that, we did get screwed at the end of the 2007-2008 season…
Later, he was pictured smoking after coming out of a night club and at this point of time he ticked off the boss.
Wenger told the club’s Friday news conference. “I didn’t see the picture but I don’t like that.
“He does have a bigger responsibility as captain and I believe that is completely true. It is a public job with a public responsibility and therefore it is for everybody exactly the same.
Thus young Cesc Fabregas on 24th November became Arsenal captain, succeeding William Gallas. Now, lets not forget that Bill did play brilliantly on some occasions, but frankly, his cons outweigh his pros….( and we both know it )
Lastly, he moved to the Spuds, I mean why would you move to a team like that? Was he high on meth, or just goddamn desperate, or better did he think he was going to win a trophy with them? That answers to those questions I will never know, and frankly I’m not bothered.
Best of luck to you Bill. Really appreciate whatever you did for the club. Hope you find peace in a place which resembles a morgue. We wait for your arrival at the Emirates on 21st November 2010, and here’s a free-tip from an Arsenal fan – “Get a pair of earphones, will you?”
***Thanks to armourysquare for submitting this article. Please be aware these are the views of the guest contributor and not those of Football-talk.co.uk***
