After yesterday’s stories about William Gallas losing the confidence of his teammates the man he replaced as captain has come out to play down the stories.
You wouldn’t even blame Gilberto if he was bitter and decided to stick the knife in a bit but the man has been a professional this season, despite how much the circumstances must have hurt him. He said:
Sometimes when a thing doesn’t work well like in the last weeks – we didn’t get our results – some people try to create some problems.I’m sure he doesn’t have any problems with us. He’s still got the friendship of the players and the supporters.
As I said yesterday Gallas has got some games to go to prove he’s not just a captain with his mouth but you do get the feeling there’s an undercurrent of something to this story. The looks on some of the players faces as Gallas went on spoke volumes. Apparently Arsenal have made a complaint to Sky that this was broadcast. Let’s be honest, it’s fairly unprecedented that Sky would get so close with cameras and mics to any team warm-up, but at the same time most other teams would have done their business in private once it became obvious that’s what was happening. I’m sure Gallas meant well but it was rather an error of judgement on his part.
As for this story about Gallas not having any friends at Arsenal – it’s a complete stitch up by the Daily Mail, apparently. He was asked about England players, not friends, hence his remarks.
Leaving that aside Gilberto and Gael Clichy are of the same opinion – if there’s any chance of winning the league we have to win our remaining 7 games. There’s no margin for error. The temptation would be to mentally concede the league and focus on the Champions League but the manager insists that won’t be happening. You just wonder that perhaps with the pressure off we might start performing again.
Transfer news sees us linked with Serbian midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic. He plays for Fiorentina but holds a Swiss passport. According to the Sun Arsenal representatives have flown to Italy to ‘thrash out a deal’. I’ve never heard of this lad at all, I have no idea what kind of a midfielder he is apart from a relatively young, unknown one. So he seems like the perfect signing.
The boss praises David Beckham who spent time training with the club over the winter. He’s set to win his 100th England cap tonight. We’ve got players involved in friendly action too, fingers crossed they all come through unscathed.
We’ll find out tomorrow if that happens. Going on past experience I’m not that hopeful. Not much else to talk about so that’ll do. More tomorrow.
