Wenger on Gallas

From The Guardian

As Arsenal crashed to a fifth defeat of an increasingly debilitating season, Arsène Wenger attempted to draw a veil over his banishment of William Gallas from the captaincy and the first team. Having pilloried his team-mates' attitude and ability in midweek, Gallas remained in London yesterday, training in the morning, and absent from the team who lost 3-0 to Manchester City. Publicly, his manager simply attempted to ignore the issue.

'I don't want to talk about [William Gallas],' said Wenger. 'He's a player who does not play today, what can he do for the club? Nothing. Why should we not then talk about Fabregas and all the other nine players who were not here. I will not speak about it.

'We can go on to midnight if you want. I'll give you always the same answer. Why should we make statements? We can have a captain, we can change a captain, without having a political issue of it. Of course he has a future at the club, but I believe the less we talk the better it is.'

Questioned as to whether an absence of leadership was evident in the defeat, Wenger argued that Arsenal's worst League result in almost two years had been undeserved. 'I don't believe too much in leadership,' he said. 'I believe more in good passing than a guy who jumps around with the hands in the air and plays the leader.

'Nothing was disturbing before the game, we had a good focus. I believe it is a flattering victory for Man City because we conceded a goal in first-half injury time that turned the game. They had not created a lot and we were quite in control.'



The happy ship Arsenal eh!

Wonder what Gallas has actually done? There's got to be more in it than slagging off a few players in the press.

To hear Wenger say he doesn't care too much about leadership can't be good for the Arsenal fans, seeing as they're losing games quite easily. Seems like it's something they seem to be missing!

As good a manager as Wenger is (or ... was, who knows?), I feel that he is taking Gallas for granted. He seems to be the only one of their squad with leadership qualities (despite the fact he has a tendancy to sit and cry on the pitch).

With Cesc as their captain ... well it'd be like us putting Babel as captain. Skilful, young, somewhat naive - and the pressure will be all on the captain, much like the pressure was all on Torres whilst he was at Atlético.

It's unfair on both Gallas and Fabregas, and right now I feel sorry for the Arsenal fans.

Hold on there Reslivio, comparing Fabregas and Babel is like comparing chalk and cheese. Fabregas who is a proven succesful player in the premier league and one that has committed his long term future to Arsenal should always have had the nod ahead of William Gallas. If you recall Fabregas had his best season in the premier league in 2006, what happened then was Gallas was purchased and immediately given the armband. I think Wenger made the mistake from the beginning by putting a new player as captain regardless of his status considering Gallas had no previous captain experience it puzzled me why he didnt consider Toure who also had a blinder that season and/or Gilberto who publicly revolted against Wenger's decision.

This was a poor decsiosn made by Wenger and he is now copping it on the chin but in typical Wenger fashion he is doing his best to make a meal out of it rather then accept he screwed up.

Hold on there Reslivio, comparing Fabregas and Babel is like comparing chalk and cheese. Fabregas who is a proven succesful player in the premier league and one that has committed his long term future to Arsenal should always have had the nod ahead of William Gallas. If you recall Fabregas had his best season in the premier league in 2006, what happened then was Gallas was purchased and immediately given the armband. I think Wenger made the mistake from the beginning by putting a new player as captain regardless of his status considering Gallas had no previous captain experience it puzzled me why he didnt consider Toure who also had a blinder that season and/or Gilberto who publicly revolted against Wenger's decision.

This was a poor decsiosn made by Wenger and he is now copping it on the chin but in typical Wenger fashion he is doing his best to make a meal out of it rather then accept he screwed up.

If you don't agree with that then look at my example of Torres at Atlético. He was an established La Liga player, yet the pressure was all on him. If Adebayor leaves Arsenal in the near future, who will they look to to keep the team up? A 21 year-old Fabregas. It's unfair on him.

I dont think its reasonable to compare Torres's Athletico situation with that of Fabregas's at Arsenal. There is that similarity of them both being established players in their  respected league, however Torres never had the players around him that could be compared to the ones Fabregas has. Hence he was left out single handedly carrying the burden of the responsibilties on his own. I dont think this pressure factor you talk about has changed much the squad at Arsenal is 85% the same as it was when Gallas was handed the captaincy and Fabregas is some 18 months older..so what has changed???

You can't really compare them. Fernando doesn't have the players Cesc does around him.

Other than Gallas, if you look around the Arsenal team, there's no one else capable of wearing the armband other than Almunia and Fabregas. Clichy was also in the list of candidates. One thing is, Fabregas would be inspirational to his teammates but he's really young to lead them and keep them together. However, i may be wrong.

I think one of the reasons Fabregas was handed the arm band is to prevent him from leaving Arsenal easily and return to Spain. He'd have to think twice as captain.