William Gallas is having a fine pre-season, for talking that is. Except instead of criticising he’s being Johnny Positive and he reckons the Arsenal kids, subject of some of his end of term rantings last time around, have grown up. He says:
This season, the young players really, really want to win one trophy. They won’t be bullied this season. They don’t want people to keep saying Arsenal are just young kids. When I train with them, I don’t see them as young kids. I see only players who are ready to fight.
They will be ready this season. During pre-season, I realised that. What I saw during the tournaments – against Paris St-Germain, Inter Milan, Ajax and Lazio – the spirit was different. Everybody fought for his team-mate and you realise: something’s changed.
Now, I’m not sure about Gallas being the ‘new Vieira’ as he’s labelled in some papers this morning but there’s no question he’s one of the most experienced players in the squad. Frankly, last season was a write-off for all concered. His performances were no more than average at best, he spent most of his time moaning about anything he could think of (Chelsea, Arsenal, Chelsea, Arsenal’s transfer policy, Chelsea, Arsenal’s young players, Chelsea) and hardy won the heart and mind of your average fan. Perhaps it was difficult coming to the club on deadline day, involved in a deal with one of the biggest cunts in Arsenal history and finding yourself in a slightly uneasy dressing room lorded over by Thierry Henry. Whatever the reason he was a negative Nancy last season but seems to have been transformed in recent week.
No excuses this time around. As I’ve said all along I have no problem with someone talking the talk if they can walk the walk. So far Gallas would fall behind Arsene Wenger Hawkins in the walking the walk stakes and that’s not good. His comments today are good and positive but they’ll only be worth something if they’re backed up by performances on the pitch. Let’s hope he can produce because on his day he’s a fine defender.
In other news Arsene Wenger is sure that Gael Clichy will eventually get a call-up to French national side. Certainly if he keeps improving he’s got every chance but then while I’ll be happy for him it’s always a pain to have more players to go off and get injured by Raymond Domenech.
Meanwhile Alex Song says he’s determined to prove his worth for the season ahead. At the moment he appears to be 6th choice for central midfield so unless there’s an injury crisis his chances are going to few and far between.
At training day yesterday reports suggest that Kolo Toure will be the new captain, at least until Gilberto gets back. There’s still not been any official announcement as Arsene Wenger is probably well aware of the curse of the armband. The sinsister poem scrawled on a wall deep in the bowels of the East Stand at Highbury should have been a warning:
He that doth receive the armband post poetman
shall change and desire different things
like women from the med and proper ragu
take great care to whom you give it to
It really has to be Gilberto and Kolo as the two most experienced outfield ‘Arsenal’ players and I’m quite happy with that.
Finally for today your help is required for this week’s Arsecast. I’m looking for you to take part and leave a voice mail about the season ahead. All I want is for you to say who you are, where you are, your prediction for the season ahead and one thing you’re looking forward to about the new season. Try and keep them under 30 seconds if possible and if there are a load of them I might not be able to play them all but we’ll see how it goes.
To leave your message simply call – 020 7193 6971 from inside the UK and – 0044 20 7193 6971 from outside. It should go directly to the voicemail.
Update 4.20pm – If you could hang on from calling until further notice that would be great.
Update 6.5opm – Ok, lines open till 10pm tonight (GMT).
Update 7.20pm – No more calls, please! Thanks to everyone who did but there’s just too many now. Cheers.
And that’s it.
