“It was a candy-stick!”, protests distraught Gallas
39 comments October 25th, 2008
“I am upset by allegations that I was smoking outside a nightclub on the 25th October. As is absolutely evident from the photographs that have been published, I was in fact chewing on a candy stick. I have been eating inordinate amounts of the sugary fag-a-likes in order to collect the free dinosaur cards that come in each packet. Whilst I was present at the nightclub with Chelsea stars Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel, this was not a social call. In fact, John Obi had expressed a desire to swap my Stegosaurus card for his Nipponosaurus. As the Nipponosaurus is a particularly rare card, I deemed it neccessary that I meet with the Nigerian midfielder to oversee the exchange – or as we call it in France: Le Swapsee. I apologise for any distress caused by this misunderstanding.” William Gallas, Arsenal & France
Back to reality. I’m sure you’ve all heard that The Sun photographed Gallas smoking, and Arsene is absolutely right that it’s not acceptable from a professional athlete at Arsenal Football Club. However, Arsene is right when he says of the French, “We all smoke” – and it certainly never did this man any harm on the football field.
Gallas’ problem, I suppose, is that he is not even close to Zidane in terms of his on-field value. Smoking would be fine, if he were defending to any significant standard. As it is, this is just the latest in a catalogue of incidents that have undermined Gallas’ less than illustrious period as captain. As a way of defending his skipper, Arsene has said correctly that, ‘we all make mistakes’. The sooner he admits that making Gallas captain was one of his, the better.
West Ham Preview tomorrow.
