William Gallas wants to leave Arsenal. The France defender has become disillusioned with life at the Emirates Stadium since he was stripped of the captaincy last month for criticising his team-mates. He was dropped from the squad for the 3-0 defeat away to Manchester City on November 22 and replaced as captain by Cesc Fàbregas two days later. Although he put a brave face on the demotion, he is still angry about the way that he has been treated.
Juventus, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain are prepared to offer the 31-year-old defender an escape route out of London, but none of them can afford to match his Arsenal wages of £90,000 a week. Gallas believes that he was humiliated by Arsène Wenger and that the manager overreacted by stripping him of the captaincy and fining him two weeks’ wages for comments he made in an interview to publicise the publication of his autobiography in France.
Gallas has few friends in the Arsenal dressing-room and has become increasingly isolated since Thierry Henry was allowed to join Barcelona in June last year. Henry was his closest friend at the club and since the France forward moved to Spain, Gallas has fallen out with team-mates such as Fàbregas, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott and Samir Nasri.
The distance between Gallas and the rest of the squad was highlighted during the warm-up before the 1-1 draw away to Middlesbrough on Saturday, when the defender ignored instructions from Pat Rice, the assistant manager, to join the other players in a huddle.
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Gallas’s relationship with Wenger has also become strained and the manager admitted this week that taking the captaincy away from Gallas was the hardest thing he has had to do during his managerial career.
If Gallas does leave the Emirates Stadium next month he will miss out on the chance of playing with Eduardo da Silva again. The Croatia striker played for the first time in ten months on Tuesday, for the first half of the reserve-team’s 2-0 victory over the Portsmouth reserve side, and he is confident that he will be ready for first-team action in two weeks despite a slight hamstring strain. “I just want to play like I did before,” Eduardo said. “Maybe I can be better. At the moment I need more training. I need more hard games but I think I will be back pretty quickly. I am hoping to be back for the national team in February against Romania and back in the Arsenal first team by the new year.”
Doctors feared that the Brazil-born 25-year-old would not play again after he fractured his left fibula and dislocated an ankle during the 2-2 draw away to Birmingham City in February. “In training everyone is very careful with him,” Wenger said. “So it is better he goes into a game where people do not care about him and he discovers if he is strong enough to deal with it. For him to be back playing in the first team will not be a physical problem, it will be more a psychological hurdle to go back into the fight.”
Arsenal are also likely to be boosted next month by the return of Tomas Rosicky. The Czech Republic midfield player — who has made only 61 first-team appearances since moving to London from Borussia Dortmund for £6.8 million in May 2006 — has been out of action since January with a persistent hamstring injury that did not respond to treatment until he had surgery last month. “We have to assess him to see how he has progressed and he should start training slowly again this week,” Wenger said. “First it will be a build-up of his strength to get him outside and run a little bit at the beginning of January if it all goes well.”
Juventus, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain are prepared to offer the 31-year-old defender an escape route out of London, but none of them can afford to match his Arsenal wages of £90,000 a week. Gallas believes that he was humiliated by Arsène Wenger and that the manager overreacted by stripping him of the captaincy and fining him two weeks’ wages for comments he made in an interview to publicise the publication of his autobiography in France.
Gallas has few friends in the Arsenal dressing-room and has become increasingly isolated since Thierry Henry was allowed to join Barcelona in June last year. Henry was his closest friend at the club and since the France forward moved to Spain, Gallas has fallen out with team-mates such as Fàbregas, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott and Samir Nasri.
The distance between Gallas and the rest of the squad was highlighted during the warm-up before the 1-1 draw away to Middlesbrough on Saturday, when the defender ignored instructions from Pat Rice, the assistant manager, to join the other players in a huddle.
Related Links
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Gallas and Bendtner may quit Arsenal
Wenger heaps praise on outstanding Gallas
Gallas’s relationship with Wenger has also become strained and the manager admitted this week that taking the captaincy away from Gallas was the hardest thing he has had to do during his managerial career.
If Gallas does leave the Emirates Stadium next month he will miss out on the chance of playing with Eduardo da Silva again. The Croatia striker played for the first time in ten months on Tuesday, for the first half of the reserve-team’s 2-0 victory over the Portsmouth reserve side, and he is confident that he will be ready for first-team action in two weeks despite a slight hamstring strain. “I just want to play like I did before,” Eduardo said. “Maybe I can be better. At the moment I need more training. I need more hard games but I think I will be back pretty quickly. I am hoping to be back for the national team in February against Romania and back in the Arsenal first team by the new year.”
Doctors feared that the Brazil-born 25-year-old would not play again after he fractured his left fibula and dislocated an ankle during the 2-2 draw away to Birmingham City in February. “In training everyone is very careful with him,” Wenger said. “So it is better he goes into a game where people do not care about him and he discovers if he is strong enough to deal with it. For him to be back playing in the first team will not be a physical problem, it will be more a psychological hurdle to go back into the fight.”
Arsenal are also likely to be boosted next month by the return of Tomas Rosicky. The Czech Republic midfield player — who has made only 61 first-team appearances since moving to London from Borussia Dortmund for £6.8 million in May 2006 — has been out of action since January with a persistent hamstring injury that did not respond to treatment until he had surgery last month. “We have to assess him to see how he has progressed and he should start training slowly again this week,” Wenger said. “First it will be a build-up of his strength to get him outside and run a little bit at the beginning of January if it all goes well.”