William Gallas Assessment

Tottenham Hotspur defender William Gallas believes Arsene Wenger made a mistake in letting him leave Arsenal.

Gallas departed Emirates Stadium for bitter rivals Spurs last summer after failing to agree a new contract with the Gunners.

And the 33-year-old demonstrated he can still cut it in the Premier League following a solid debut season at White Hart Lane.

Of his decision to part company with the Gunners, Gallas told L'Equipe: "I left Arsenal because we could not agree on a financial level.

"They decided to not make the effort to keep me, it is a choice I respect, and they respected the fact I didn't want the wages they proposed.
Wrong

"Did Arsene Wenger make a mistake in not keeping me? He made a choice, but indeed I believe he made a mistake.

"In the street, Arsenal's fans asked me why I left. The coach thought I was a finished player. I proved he was wrong."

Gallas endured a controversial time at Arsenal, in particular during his period as captain of the club.

Reflecting on his much-publicised clashes with a number of his former Gunners team-mates, he said: "When I was captain I wanted to give a message, but they didn't get it.

"I may have been clumsy, but the substance was right.
Ugly duckling

"I came from Chelsea where I won titles, and I wanted to share my experience, because I thought we missed commitment in our work.

"My message has not been understood and I am also responsible for that. But unfortunately the last season showed that team still misses something.

"It is too easy to say all the Arsenal problems came from William Gallas."

Gallas also commented on his relationship with French compatriot Samir Nasri, the pair having fallen out after a dispute over France's Euro 2008 campaign.

He stated: "Samir Nasri? People tried to show me as an ugly duckling, but the images showed the contrary. Samir Nasri knows the problem. He can't lie to himself."

thoughts ?

Sounds like hes trying to make it out to be the victim. He was a sulk if he didnt get his way he threw bitch fits and he wanted a pay rise.

We showed the guy pretty good respect with the whole captain thing and giving him the number 10 so i think was a good choice to let him leave, noone thought he was finished he was still definately very good.

With the thing with him and nasri seems they both arent innocent

it's funny, nasri and gallas had a feud but they are alike personalities!!

Didn't he end up getting less wages at Tottenham anyway? Not to mention, he was usually injured. We made the right choice by not renewing his contract as far as I'm concerned. There were a lot of dressing room problems centered around him apparently, with Nasri being the most vocal one.

Do I particularly hate him? Not really. We already knew he's a mercenary. He went from Chelsea to us, and a move to Tottenham doesn't make him any worse tbh.

An awkward one. I would have prefered him to be here this season, he could have helped out.

He wanted a pay rise, that was the problem i think. If we had given him his pay rise and not paid 6m for squillaci then it would have paid for itself. We made the wrong call there i think.

Lets not mix-up the purchase of Squillashit with the selling of Gallas.

I think it was the right move to sell Gallas and look for someone else. I just don't think that Squillaci was that someone else. We went wrong there, but the plan was fine imo

well meaning it as an example... we brought in squillaci as 3rd/4th choice, which we wouldn't have done if gallas had stayed. they weren't like for like, but if it werent for selling gallas, we wouldn't have bought squillaci.

Huh? Our defense was actually very decent this season compared to the rest. In the only way he would have helped was in experience, but he obviously wanted to leave and was apart from that a complete asshole in the changing rooms, having serious problems with Nasri.

Not worth it.

The team overall looks much more defensively solid and less prone to counter attacks without him.

Ah sorry willy but you were Shit at Arsenal and Tott . And you didn't prove Wenger wrong till this moment .

The only thing that he has proved is that he is old , injury prone , and he certainly didn't deserve a pay raise

ye, i think he got a less pay at tottenham, what a dumb-ass !!!

Sushi Master wrote:Huh? Our defense was actually very decent this season compared to the rest. In the only way he would have helped was in experience, but he obviously wanted to leave and was apart from that a complete asshole in the changing rooms, having serious problems with Nasri.

Not worth it.

Our defense was better, but you couldn't say that Gallas instead of Squillaci wouldn't have been an improvement in that respect.

It's sort of the same thing we'll see with Samba i think. except we know gallas is capable of coping at arsenal.

he was important for vermaelen's debut season .having one experienced partner really helped verma with his positioning etc maybe kos needed someone like him(not gallas himself) as a partner then kos would do a verminator
but overally agree he was injury prone and couldn't have him in a vital part of the season and his best years was at chelsea
now he just needs to shut his mouth up!

He simply had to be sold.

He had some problems with some of the players at the club, but more importantly he was asking for wayyy too much money.

I also think we had to move him on to give Cesc FULL control of the team. I'm sure having him around being an ex-captain must have made things a bit awkward.

Kiwigunner wrote:

Sushi Master wrote:Huh? Our defense was actually very decent this season compared to the rest. In the only way he would have helped was in experience, but he obviously wanted to leave and was apart from that a complete asshole in the changing rooms, having serious problems with Nasri.

Not worth it.

Our defense was better, but you couldn't say that Gallas instead of Squillaci wouldn't have been an improvement in that respect.

It's sort of the same thing we'll see with Samba i think. except we know gallas is capable of coping at arsenal.

Sure, but is it worth it having the changing rooms up in flames? Plus, don't you remember this?


He was also asking for 80k a week. Sure, he would have been an improvement over Squilashit, but would still bring a lot of problems.

I wouldn't have a problem with Samba because we need a strong, tall player, he would not earn that much money and would in any case be a backup most of the time.

Was it only money.. I thought that Wenger was ready to give only a 1 year contract.. Tottenham provided him a 2 year contract...

We are better of without him.... He didn't provide any better defending in set pieces and provided many flare.... Good riddance.

Good question... How about toure?

Now THAT is one defender I didn't want to see the back of. <Toure> We might have managed to get Yaya on board too, if he was still here, and our long standing issue of lacking a back-up DM would have been resolved. If. Only if.

I meant Kolo toure but yeah Yaya toure would have been an outstanding buy.

Take a look at city all of there success came from there DM :p

Gallas is a chief. Fact.

However I did agree with the comments that lost his captaincy, what is ironic is his sit down protest is what a lot of Arsenal fans are crying out for.

Nonethelss he remains a massive bell.

A Gunner wrote:I meant Kolo toure but yeah Yaya toure would have been an outstanding buy.

Take a look at city all of there success came from there DM :p

Yup.. I refered to Kolo as well.. I was pointing out that Yaya would have come if Kolo was still here..

My bad man

He was a massive bellcheese he had to go.

A Gunner wrote:I meant Kolo toure but yeah Yaya toure would have been an outstanding buy.

Take a look at city all of there success came from there DM :p

it's actually De Jong who's the backbone of city. but nonetheless, yaya is class and it wouldve been lovely to have him at arsenal