By Garry Cook
Whatever the truth about William Gallas and his fall-out with Chelsea, there is one
thing we can be sure of: his former club are the most hypocritical petty whingers the game has ever seen.
Chelsea's issuing of a statement because it was 'important for our supporters to be made aware of the full facts regarding William Gallas and the lack of respect he showed to the fans, the manager and the club' is as hypocritical as an arsonist phoning the fire brigade on bonfire night.
The sheer regularity in which either Chelsea, chief executive Peter Kenyon or manager Jose Mourinho get into spats with UEFA/FIFA/Barcelona/Arsene Wenger/Sir Alex Ferguson/Ken Bates should be enough for the Blues to realise that silence is golden - or at least a helluva lot more peaceful.
But it is the sheer pettiness of Chelsea - and one can only presume Kenyon is behind the statement - which riles.
If you accept that revealing to fans what Gallas allegedly said is fair enough, surely you can't stomach the way Chelsea twist the knife.
Part of their statement on Gallas read: "He also failed to recognise the role Jose Mourinho and Chelsea played in helping him become a double Premiership champion for a player whose only league title prior to that had been in the French Second Division."
Why add in the bit about 'only' winning a league title previously in the French Second Division?
As well as upsetting the French Second Division (possibly) all this sentence does is highlight the fact that the bitter Blues are not in control of their emotions.
It leads to reader to think that the Blues have been scorned by Gallas, like a 15-year-old girl high on hormones who has just lost her boyfriend to the bird across the street.
No, Chelsea sitting on the moral high ground does not rest easily on the stomach.
This is the club, remember, who in recent weeks paid Manchester United £12m (plus £4m to Lyn Oslo) for Jon Obi Mikel, a player they were all but found guilty of tapping up from Lyn despite him having signed a deal with United. They denied making any contact with Mikel, even though the player stated a desire to join the Stamford Bridge after having signed with United. Strange.
The fact that they stumped up so much cash for a teenager who never played any kind of match for United is an admission of guilt as much as it is an admission of desperation to get their hands on the player.
They also, in the words of Leeds chairman Bates, 'tapped up' two Elland Road kids. When Bates labelled Chelsea 'a bunch of shysters from Siberia' they issued a statement accusing him of racism (Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich is Jewish) but nothing by way of an apology for taking two of Leeds' potential stars. Apologise? Chelsea? Are you out of your tree?
Then there was Mourinho's labelling of his own player Claude Makelele a 'slave' after he was called up for international duty with France after retiring.
Instead of asking their manager to lay off the mud slinging, Chelsea issued yet another statement labelling comments by France, their coach Raymond Domenech and Lilian Thuram "Ill-considered."
Ill-considered? Mourinho called him a slave!
The statement went on: "They (France, Domenech and Thuram) also fail to understand Jose Mourinho's comments regarding 'slavery' which were purely a metaphor to illustrate the Makelele problem, a figure of speech rather than a literal comparison with slavery as a social and political issue. As a result of their failings, deliberately inflammatory comments will only cloud a problem which is on its way to being resolved."
How dare they. How f****** dare they! If calling a black player a slave is not inflammatory, then hold my hat I'm jumping in the nearest river. I can't take any more of this.
Chelsea were riled, by the way, after Thuram had dared to criticise Mourinho's use of the world slave. Clearly Thuram should have known better!
There are countless other cases of Chelsea tapping up, arguing, bullying and defying soccer laws.
In many respects, these things are accepted as part and parcel of football. What club doesn't tap up? What manager doesn't say things which annoys another manager?
What riles about Chelsea is the way one arm complains it has been violated while the other violates in the worst possible way.
Though the Gallas problem had been simmering for a while (as early as last season, Chelsea claim) it only came to a head on the back of the Stamford Bridge club's outrageous tapping up of Arsenal full-back Ashley Cole. And they even tried to squirm there way out of that one despite granite-like evidence. They were recently fined £300,000 and had a suspended three-point deduction imposed by the Premier League.
The fact that Kenyon and Mourinho - a manager I rate, though I have grown tired of his whinging - were virtually forced to hand over Gallas in the deal that saw Cole move across London is the only piece of pleasurable most fans will take from this whole sorry story.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Roy Keane is Sunderland's saviour? Before we say that we need to be sure, to be sure.
By Garry Cook
He’s ‘apologised’ to Niall Quinn and Sir Alex Ferguson and told us all that he wasn’t that great a player anyway – and all this before he has actually taken charge of his first match.
Yes, the Roy Keane road show has rolled into town.
Inside his first week the snarling, unforgiving, brutal bastard broke with protocol by saying sorry and pledging to be a bit more subtle.
In his inaugural press conference as Sunderland boss only one journalist had the balls to question Keane about his treatment of former republic of Ireland team-mate Niall Quinn.
As Sunderland’s chairman, Quinn is now embarrassingly Keane’s boss. He was sitting alongside Keane when the question was asked. I’m cringing even now thinking about the pairs past and present situation.
After Keane fell out with Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy on the eve of the World Cup in 2002, the former Manchester United midfielder labelled the ex-Sunderland striker, amongst other things, a muppet.
When the pair met later that year at the Stadium of Light there was a rather acrimonious incident as Quinn, to his credit, tried to shake the hand of Keane.
Unfortunately, Quinn made his gesture after the volatile Irishman Keane had been sent off following a running battle with another Republic player, Jason McAteer.
It was this incident which was mentioned in the press conference. Keane brushed the question aside like a seasoned pro (which he is) and stated that he had realised his mistakes and totally changed his opinion of Quinn – but he had NOT done so to get the Sunderland job. Roy Keane does not arse lick.
His steely stare meant there were no more questions on the subject. Basically, Keane got off lightly. Again. Professionally, no journalist in the room wanted to upset Keane for fear of being denied access to him in the future. And privately, no journalist wanted to upset Keane for fear.
On the rare occasion Keane forced a smile, I was wincing. It didn’t look right. It wasn’t Roy Keane.
There were huge similarities in the way Keane brushed away his past misdemeanours at the press conference and the way he excused his past thug-like behaviour in his autobiography.
In his book there was a lot of metaphorical shrugging of the shoulders as Keane glossed over his World Cup fiasco, his relationship with his Irish team-mates and the number of pitch fights he readily took part in.
However much of a great player Keane was, should he ever be forgiven for his deliberate maiming of Manchester City’s Alfe Inge Haaland in 2001, a tackle which ended the Norwegian’s career and was retribution for Keane’s cruciate injury during a spat with the same player years earlier?
Keane recalled in his book: "I’d waited long enough. I f***ing hit him hard. The ball was there [I think]."
What a lovely man.
It’s seems churlish to mention Keane’s other numerous flashpoints – Patrick Vieira (several) and Alan Shearer at St James’ Park being the highlights – but the point is made. Keane is a bastard. Luckily for Sunderland, having taken the title for the worst team ever to grace the Premiership twice, they are in desperate need of a bastard.
No Sunderland fan is 100 per cent chuffed at Keane’s appointment. No experience = no confidence. But things have been so bad on Wearside for so long that they’ll to cling to any bit of hope they can.
Sunderland’s first win – and points - of the season came in the Bank Holiday Monday home victory over West Brom. They had suffered four straight defeats before then, including a loss to Colchester – and not including a Carling Cup defeat to League Two’s then bottom side Bury. Was it a coincidence that Keane was sat in the stand watching his prospective new club when they put in their best performance for nearly four years?
Maybe that assumption is hard on Quinn who finally got a positive result in his short stint as caretaker manager.
But it’s onwards and upwards, that’s what Sunderland fans are saying. Forget the past, look forward. Yes, he’s a bastard, just let the bastard stick it up our shower of s***.
In his book, Keane went out of his way to blast the managerial ‘bluffers’, those who lack tactical awareness and instead shout and scream in the dressing room. At the time, this was taken to be a swipe at manager’s like then Sunderland boss Peter Reid.
So it was with a smile on my face that I watched Keane in his first week of full training at Sunderland standing alongside Bobby Saxton, Reid’s former assistant who Quinn brought back to the club at the start of this season.
Saxton was said to be the bawler behind Reid’s mostly successful stint at the Stadium of Light. Will Keane be as good as his words and turf the wily old coach out? Or can he really forgive and forget?
It’ll be fast and furious at the Stadium of Light under Keane, and it is unfair to suggest this great player will not cut it as a manager purely because he was a great player. Idiot's logic.
Keane was as good a player that has played in the Premiership, possibly even the best. But at times he was also as good as a thug.
How long will he stay on Wearside? How good a manager will he be? And how long before he falls out with Quinn again, never mind Dwight Yorke. He’s s***, yes, but it would be s*** without him.
It’s important to give a bloke a chance, or a second chance, or whatever. We must not to be prejudicial. Before we make any judgement on whether Keane has changed, we need to be sure, to be sure.
He’s ‘apologised’ to Niall Quinn and Sir Alex Ferguson and told us all that he wasn’t that great a player anyway – and all this before he has actually taken charge of his first match.
Yes, the Roy Keane road show has rolled into town.
Inside his first week the snarling, unforgiving, brutal bastard broke with protocol by saying sorry and pledging to be a bit more subtle.
In his inaugural press conference as Sunderland boss only one journalist had the balls to question Keane about his treatment of former republic of Ireland team-mate Niall Quinn.
As Sunderland’s chairman, Quinn is now embarrassingly Keane’s boss. He was sitting alongside Keane when the question was asked. I’m cringing even now thinking about the pairs past and present situation.
After Keane fell out with Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy on the eve of the World Cup in 2002, the former Manchester United midfielder labelled the ex-Sunderland striker, amongst other things, a muppet.
When the pair met later that year at the Stadium of Light there was a rather acrimonious incident as Quinn, to his credit, tried to shake the hand of Keane.
Unfortunately, Quinn made his gesture after the volatile Irishman Keane had been sent off following a running battle with another Republic player, Jason McAteer.
It was this incident which was mentioned in the press conference. Keane brushed the question aside like a seasoned pro (which he is) and stated that he had realised his mistakes and totally changed his opinion of Quinn – but he had NOT done so to get the Sunderland job. Roy Keane does not arse lick.
His steely stare meant there were no more questions on the subject. Basically, Keane got off lightly. Again. Professionally, no journalist in the room wanted to upset Keane for fear of being denied access to him in the future. And privately, no journalist wanted to upset Keane for fear.
On the rare occasion Keane forced a smile, I was wincing. It didn’t look right. It wasn’t Roy Keane.
There were huge similarities in the way Keane brushed away his past misdemeanours at the press conference and the way he excused his past thug-like behaviour in his autobiography.
In his book there was a lot of metaphorical shrugging of the shoulders as Keane glossed over his World Cup fiasco, his relationship with his Irish team-mates and the number of pitch fights he readily took part in.
However much of a great player Keane was, should he ever be forgiven for his deliberate maiming of Manchester City’s Alfe Inge Haaland in 2001, a tackle which ended the Norwegian’s career and was retribution for Keane’s cruciate injury during a spat with the same player years earlier?
Keane recalled in his book: "I’d waited long enough. I f***ing hit him hard. The ball was there [I think]."
What a lovely man.
It’s seems churlish to mention Keane’s other numerous flashpoints – Patrick Vieira (several) and Alan Shearer at St James’ Park being the highlights – but the point is made. Keane is a bastard. Luckily for Sunderland, having taken the title for the worst team ever to grace the Premiership twice, they are in desperate need of a bastard.
No Sunderland fan is 100 per cent chuffed at Keane’s appointment. No experience = no confidence. But things have been so bad on Wearside for so long that they’ll to cling to any bit of hope they can.
Sunderland’s first win – and points - of the season came in the Bank Holiday Monday home victory over West Brom. They had suffered four straight defeats before then, including a loss to Colchester – and not including a Carling Cup defeat to League Two’s then bottom side Bury. Was it a coincidence that Keane was sat in the stand watching his prospective new club when they put in their best performance for nearly four years?
Maybe that assumption is hard on Quinn who finally got a positive result in his short stint as caretaker manager.
But it’s onwards and upwards, that’s what Sunderland fans are saying. Forget the past, look forward. Yes, he’s a bastard, just let the bastard stick it up our shower of s***.
In his book, Keane went out of his way to blast the managerial ‘bluffers’, those who lack tactical awareness and instead shout and scream in the dressing room. At the time, this was taken to be a swipe at manager’s like then Sunderland boss Peter Reid.
So it was with a smile on my face that I watched Keane in his first week of full training at Sunderland standing alongside Bobby Saxton, Reid’s former assistant who Quinn brought back to the club at the start of this season.
Saxton was said to be the bawler behind Reid’s mostly successful stint at the Stadium of Light. Will Keane be as good as his words and turf the wily old coach out? Or can he really forgive and forget?
It’ll be fast and furious at the Stadium of Light under Keane, and it is unfair to suggest this great player will not cut it as a manager purely because he was a great player. Idiot's logic.
Keane was as good a player that has played in the Premiership, possibly even the best. But at times he was also as good as a thug.
How long will he stay on Wearside? How good a manager will he be? And how long before he falls out with Quinn again, never mind Dwight Yorke. He’s s***, yes, but it would be s*** without him.
It’s important to give a bloke a chance, or a second chance, or whatever. We must not to be prejudicial. Before we make any judgement on whether Keane has changed, we need to be sure, to be sure.
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