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“Captain Excuses” Is Still Flipping His Lid

By on October 12, 2008

I think I would rather have a cunt than a Willy.

When will the drama with Gallas end?  First we had the stories with excerpts from French footballer, Jerome Rothen’s new book, You’re Not Going To Believe Me, detailing how Gallas was given the nickname of Pierre Richard, the French Mr. Bean. This is hardly surprising to anyone who has ever seen an extended interview with the man.  If that wasn’t enough, we are then told how our “captain” was quite the untrustworthy, petty juvenile delinquent in his days as a Caen trainee.

Following these “revelations,” Gallas was in the papers once again this week as he admitted that he was in top form.  The most amusing part is that he says it as if he’s cluing us in on something we don’t know.  Of course, referring to himself in the third person is also quite amusing:

I can say we have not seen the Gallas from 2006 this term so far…. Maybe I feel a little tried. Do I experience the most difficult period since I joined Arsenal? We could say yes. Above all I miss consistency. One match is good, the other one is not so good.

“We could say yes???”  Are you serious, Billy?  The fact that he even thinks it is up for debate is worrying.  I don’t see where he has a problem with consistency… he’s been consistently poor since the end of February.  Scoring goals does not absolve him of his responsibility as a central defender and neither does the club winning a match.  For him it’s a matter of personal glory over team success and that is in no way acceptable for any player at Arsenal let alone the captain.

Now, “Captain Excuses” is in the paper once again trying to justify his behavior last February that, without a doubt, played a crucial role in our losing the title:

The controversy about my captaincy? People had to find a scapegoat as we didn’t win any trophies last season. So, they talked and talked again about the Birmingham match. Indeed I made a mistake. I must admit I flipped my lid. We should have won that game easily.

Before Arsenal, I spent six years at Chelsea. That team was capable of getting ugly wins. If we had an opportunity to win a cup, we would never miss it.  There I became imbued with the winning culture, which doesn’t exist yet at Arsenal.

Of course, some of my Arsenal team-mates could not have appreciated my behaviour against Birmingham. I had to state my authority again and today when I motivate them before a match, they say; ‘Capi, we need you, we are following you’.

If I would have been an unworthy captain, they would have banned me.

Anyone who has read our posts on Gallas in the post or knows me outside of the blogosphere knows that there is no love lost between me and Gallas.  But these latest comments have taken our captain to a whole new level.  Of course your teammates “could not have appreciated” your behavior… what was there to appreciate?  Oh wait, it was his winning culture, right?  Get real.  A real winner wouldn’t have left his teammates to deal with the possible rebound from the penalty kick while he threw a tantrum my 2 year old would find hard to replicate.

There wasn’t anything resembling a “winning culture” in Gallas’ behavior that day or most days.  He wants to deny that the Birmingham match was a major factor in the team’s downslide last season?  It was the first in a run of six consecutive -and 7 out of 8- winless matches in the league.  That was the end of our title run-in right there.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that it all started at the Birmingham match.  A quick look at the results list tells you that.  But it’s also not hard to see that his behavior on that day had a profound effect on the rest of the team.  I can on ly speculate but, having played sports in my younger days, I can’t believe that the players didn’t lose what respect they had for Gallas and especially his captaincy.  Even he was forced to admit that he had to “regain their confidence” following the incident.  So for him to downplay it now is just another way for him to pile on the excuses.

The truth is that this team will never have a “winning culture” while William Gallas is its captain and probably not while he’s in the starting XI or even at the club.