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The Arsenal captain William Gallas admitted for the
first time yesterday that his bizarre behaviour on the pitch last
season had been a "mistake". The Frenchman confessed in an
interview that he had not always conducted himself as might have
been expected having been the surprise choice to succeed Thierry
Henry as captain last season.
Most notably, Gallas, 30, kicked an advertising hoarding when he
was judged to have fouled Stuart Parnaby for the penalty that gave
Birmingham City an equaliser in the game at St Andrew's in
February. The Arsenal captain did not line up on the edge of the
box for James McFadden's spot-kick, instead he stood on the halfway
line. At the end of the game he refused to get up from the turf and
go into the changing rooms until Arsène Wenger told him to do
so.
Gallas said: "You know I learned a lot, you want to be the best
captain, give good advice to your players, but sometimes you can
make mistakes as well so I think this season I know what I'm going
to do and I know I am ready to change my way to speak to the
players."
It was not exactly the most complete confession from the player,
who has thus far refused to take any blame for his behaviour in
that game – in which Eduardo da Silva's leg was broken and
Arsenal's title challenge began to fall apart – but it does at
least represent some progress. Gallas made no promises on behalf of
the new generation of Arsenal players that they would be able to
mount a credible challenge this season.
"They [the Arsenal squad] are young," he told Arsenal TV. "They
are very shy but it won't be difficult for them to settle in, the
squad is fantastic, the atmosphere is very good so I think it will
be fine for them. We have to win something because the trophies are
more important at the end of the season. Everybody knows what they
have to do, we are ready."
