Gallas’ Rant Proves Costly; Autobiography Lessens The Blow.

By: chris | November 21st, 2008

Coming as a surprise to absolutely no one, William Gallas has been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy for his very uncaptain-like rant yesterday aimed at “Mr. X” (the good money’s on RvP). It’s also being speculated he will be dropped from the squad to face Man City this weekend, while the band will go to either Gael Clichy or Manuel Almunia (Cescums is suspended). All of which will surely be softened by the blow that his autobiography comes out today.

Wait. What? So you mean to tell me William Gallas found himself on the front page of every major sports section in Britain and France the day before his autobiography was released? You don’t say…

His autobiography also produced another juicy little nugget about a certain disrespectful little 20 year old twat from the Euros. That 20 year old twat is almost assuredly Samir Nasri (’twas reported at the time - the other option is Karim “My Head Doubles By The Day” Benzema). Oh, and would you look at that, Samir now plays for Arsenal. Apparently Bill is burning bridges one by one in the Emirates locker room.

“I was also 20 years old once. I would never have allowed myself to speak in this tone to a footballer who was older than me,” writes Gallas. “The youngsters from the Euros seem cheeky, very sure of themselves. They think they know it all, but they don’t know anything. Faced with his contempt, I raised my voice. The young player said: ‘Lower your voice, speak less loudly’.

“I replied: ‘How are you speaking to me? Who do you think you are? You are only 20 years old. I am not your friend. He said: ‘Me neither, I am not your friend’.”

Now that the captaincy’s gone, it might be time to wonder if Gallas himself is soon to be gone. This isn’t small stuff, especially when he’s one of few veterans on a team riddled with kindergarteners, and airing one’s laundry in public is never ever, ever ever a smart idea. Ever. Especially with media as devious as that of the footballing variety. Hardly the decision making of a great leader.

But even without his captaincy, he can sit on his sofa this weekend and watch his book rocket up the best-sellers as his face hits the front page of every website and newspaper from London to Paris. His reputation may have taken another hit, but at least it’ll be profitable.

Perhaps FIFA should put aside SA2010 for a few weeks - it’ll still be there when they get back - and work on something more important: banning players from releasing autobiographies until after they’ve retired. Aside from needlessly fattening their already needlessly fat wallets, what good have they ever done?

As an added bonus, I decided to go to amazon.co.uk for a quick look at Willy’s autobiography (before realizing it’s probably en Français - which it is, should you feel the need), and the following came up as the most relevant search for one “William Gallas”: