Au Revoir: William Gallas
By: Martin | August 22nd, 2010
Well, it’s certainly not unexpected, but today it’s been made official. William Gallas has joined Arsenal’s arch-rival, Tottenham Hotspur, on a one-year deal (for less money than he was offered by Arsenal), which means he is now officially an ex-Gunner.
Gallas, of course, came to Arsenal from rival Chelsea, a rare swap of players between two big rival clubs. He came over in 2006 as part of the deal that sent Ca$hley across town to Chelsea. Despite being an integral member of a team that won consecutive Premiership titles in 2004-2005, and 2005-2006, Gallas was not content with having to play full-back at Chelsea, and felt he was not making enough money, and so submitted a transfer request that summer. At the same time, Arsenal had a greedy malcontent of our own, as Ca$hley was also looking for a way out. A deal was reached to send Gallas + cash to Arsenal for Ca$hley, and Gallas was now an Arsenal player.
I have never quite understood why Wenger gave Gallas the kingly treatment he received. It started when Gallas was immediately given the # 10 shirt, traditionally reserved for an attacking player and recently vacated by Dennis Bergkamp. He played 33 matches for Arsenal that first year.
He would continue to be an effective defender over the next few years, pairing primarily with Kolo Toure. He was experienced, very good technically, and had very good recovery pace for a defender. He also had an eye for goal as well, scoring 14 during his arsenal career. He also had a knack for scoring goals in big games, including the only goal in a 1-0 win over Chelsea in December 2007. There’s no doubt about it — he was a very, very good defender.
But I suspect that will not be his legacy at Arsenal. For all the things he did well on the field, I think he’ll mainly be remembered his prickly personality and poor leadership. At the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, after Thierry Henry had left the club, Wenger bizarrely chose William Gallas ahead of guys like Gilberto and Kolo Toure, who had been at the club for years, as the club captain. When you consider the men who held the position before Gallas (Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry) and that Cesc Fabgregas held it after him, it seems quite bizarre indeed. He had only been at the club for one year, and while he was a good player, didn’t really have any particularly special connection with the fans, and didn’t seem to be on the best terms with his teammates. I will argue strongly that giving Gallas the armband was one of the worst moves of Wenger’s career, and remains completely inexplicable to this day.
I think the enduring image of Gallas’s Arsenal tenure is the picture posted at the top of this post, that came in the infamous Birmingham/Eduardo match. Arsenal were top of the table, in February, leading 2-0, when that hatchet man Martin Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg in two. Arsenal’s players were all clearly distraught, Gallas failed to get the team to focus on the match, Arsenal went to pieces, conceded two late equalizers, the second on an injury time penalty kick. When the penalty was conceded (by Gael Clichy), Gallas walked back to the box at his own end, away from the action, sat down on the pitch, and cried.
On the one hand, it did show just how much Gallas wanted to win. But…on the other hand, he’s a grown-ass man, and the captain of a football team. Even if the 2 points were lost at that point (and they probably were), the captain’s place was with his team. It typified Gallas’s brand of leadership — too emotional, too alone, not enough of a connection with his teammates. Honestly, you can imagine in that happened to a team captained by Tony Adams or Patrick Vieira — well, first of all, I don’t think they would have let their teammates’ focus drift to the point where it got to that point, but if it did, they wouldn’t have sat down on the pitch and cried, they would have been talking to their teammates, telling them to keep their heads up, etc. That match was the turning point, and Arsenal went on to throw away the lead and finish 3rd.
After that, there was a lot of speculation about whether Gallas could keep his captaincy. But he did, and started the 2008-2009 season as captain. It turned out to be a mistake, again. He continued to clash with his teammates on and off the pitch. In November of that season, he gave an interview to the AP where he publicly threw his teammates under the bus, saying that they lacked the courage to win trophies. It wasn’t that different than what a lot of pundits, and probably a fair number of Arsenal fans, were saying, but for the club captain to say it, and say it in the media, was pretty classless. Gallas was stripped of the captaincy. His future at the club seemed untenable, and many (myself included) thought he needed to go as soon as possible.
Instead, it was Kolo Toure who submitted a transfer request in the January transfer window, reportedly because he could not get along with Gallas. Wenger managed to hold on to him, and it was pretty much a given that either Gallas or Toure would leave the following summer. Pretty much everyone, including me, assumed it would be Gallas. But Gallas again exerted his strange, snake-charmer-like influence over Wenger, convincing him to sell Toure to Man City instead (in what was, to be fair, a great piece of business). And to his credit, Gallas really swallowed his pride, kept his head down, and played some pretty good football last season, pairing well with newcomer Thomas Vermaelen.
His contract was up at the end of the 2009-2010 season, and while both sides made noise about wanting to keep him at Arsenal, it became clear that Wenger would stick to his policy of not offering players over 30 multi-year deals (Gallas was 33), and Gallas was not willing to sign a one-year deal. Gallas also reportedly refused to take a pay cut on his 80,000/week wages, which cost him a lot of money in the long-term. Arsenal reportedly offered him a one-year deal very close to his existing wages, which he turned down, believing he could get more money abroad. 3 months later, after most clubs reportedly refused to offer him more than about 30,000/week, he’s slinking back to England to make roughly half what he made last year from Spurs. The price of ego and hubris, I suppose.
And now he’s going to Spurs. Honestly, I don’t care that much. While Gallas was a good player, his inability to get on with his teammates and his obvious dickishness made me pretty glad to see the back of him. He played at Chelsea before Arsenal, and I don’t see how anyone could view Gallas as anything other than purely a mercenary — I don’t think he ever really had any loyalty for any club he played for, so why would he start now? And it’s not like he went to Spurs to spite Arsenal — he just badly overestimated his worth on the open market and was left scrambling for any takers for a reasonable salary at the beginning of the season.
Overall, I just don’t feel much of anything. I don’t have any bitterness or resentment towards him. I think it would be different if he was a player with whom Arsenal fans ever really had any connection with, but, at least speaking for me personally, I don’t ever feel that I did. He always a bit more at arm’s length. So I don’t wish him well, obviously, because he’s going to Spurs, and I hope he brings his divisiveness to their locker room as well. But that’s just because they’re Spurs and it’s funny when they don’t do well, not because he’s William Gallas.
So anyway, Au Revoir, William Gallas. You gave us four good years of good football and poor leadership/presence, and your Arsenal legacy is decidedly mixed. But you won’t soon be forgotten, and in the annals of Gunner History, your presence on the list of club captains will stick out like a sore thumb.
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