Great vengeance and furious anger

Written by Paul Williams on Saturday, November 22, 2008

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 wanted 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.

"Furious Arsène" 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 Touré if he was to be given the armband, 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 Gaël 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. I wonder what Patrick Vieira and Tony Adams make of it all, to me it's an unholy mess.

User Comments

7

gooner4life

Posted on 29 Nov, 2008 at 12:01 PM - Reply

you cant buy experience,certainly not with our style of football.
there needs to be a balance in the team
shame...leave the children in school and start winning cups agen

6

liaogz

Posted on 23 Nov, 2008 at 08:04 AM - Reply

I fully agree with this article. Ever since after tony adams, arsene has award captaincy foolishly and has totally treat experience players with total disrespect. Just look at manchester united, ryan giggs still play for them!

5

Joel Cairo

Posted on 23 Nov, 2008 at 02:30 AM - Reply

The people Arsenal lost had only one way to go -- downhill. Now, if you can find a way that Wenger is responsible for all the injuries his team has suffered, you may have a point.

4

sai 1983

Posted on 23 Nov, 2008 at 02:13 AM - Reply

lets not hate on gallas no way a disgrace we knew what he way like when brought him and i remember we were all quite happy with part ex deal we got. 'Gallas plus 5 mil not bad' we all said remember?

we also felt that something was not right in the changing room for a while now, denied by arsene of course blaming poor form on 'we was not sharp enuf' so its about time the ship was rocked at arsenal before it's to late and sinks followed by arsene wenger claiming he didn't see it.

Arsenal to i die unlike gallas who might be heading back to france in january any room on that plain for bendtner. Eduardo get well soon mate.

Thanx 4 leting us no the truth gallas im sure your have a great time if you join lyon because we all know you hate losing. ive really enjoyed this week apart from the defeats

3

The Saint

Posted on 23 Nov, 2008 at 02:09 AM - Reply

The last time we lost 4 times so soon in a season we finished 12th and I have not seen anything that convinces me that this will not happen this season. We now have to take our cup competitions very, very seriously as they may be our only chance for European games next season.

We need to reach the F.A. Cup Final and hopefully play a top-4 team there so that if we don't win it, we have a Euro place.

or

Win the Carling Cup

or

Least probable but we should give it our best shot, win the Champions' League.

Because cup competitions depend a great deal on luck which we had very little of last season, with some prayer and hopefully the confidence of the youth team we may just be able to do it.

It starts with the midweek Champions' League game.

Come on you under-20s!

P.S. I forgot about the Inter Toto and the Fair Play competitions but I guess we could consider those too.

2

ozgooner

Posted on 23 Nov, 2008 at 01:03 AM - Reply

Nicely put...Arsene's kindergarden dream has come undone.

What was he thinking???

1

Amr

Posted on 23 Nov, 2008 at 12:25 AM - Reply

Robin vanPersie to be the leader,
search for another good keeper,
buying one exprinced defender midfilder,
giving Song, vela, Whilshire, Djoro more chances,
finding some new scoring techniques like free kicks, shooting from different angles,....etc
Gallas for sale
shout at Cesc, Walcot, Nasri,
remove pressure over Bendtner (he is a good one)

this is my suggested sollutions,
IN WENGER WE ALL TRUST

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