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William Gallas Exclusive

William Gallas Exclusive

Saliba's significance to Arsenal's defence is unquestionable; however, are you concerned that competing for honours rather than winning will be enough to keep him in North London, should they fail to land silverware this season?

Listen, William Saliba, he needs to think about one thing, and that is improving his game. I’ve spoken about him a lot over the last couple of years, I tipped him to become one of the best CBs in the world. He has the ability, and he has the talent, but over the last 18 months, I haven’t seen him take the next steps. I’ve seen a player that has become a little frozen, a player that has stayed at the same level.

He went to the European Championships with France and forced his way into the starting 11. It took him a while, but it was off the back of some great seasons at Arsenal, since then, he hasn’t improved.

To be the best defender, it’s not only about making tackles and keeping clean sheets, but you also need to win important points for your team at the other end of the pitch and score decisive goals. That is what the world’s best CBs do.

I want to see him do more because I know he has the ability to do it. He needs to participate a little bit more in the offensive situation.

I’m sure that clubs would love to take him, but first and foremost, he needs to improve, and he should be concentrating on that.

There will be some difficult decisions for Arsenal’s players to make at the end of the season if they don’t win a major trophy next year, not just Saliba. I actually think that if you were a top, top club and you had the choice between taking Gabriel or Saliba, most would pick Gabriel, and that is because not only is he a top CB, but he scores important goals.

Arsenal haveprevious form in signing Chelsea squad players, with Kepa joining the likes of Willian, Havertz, Luiz, Jorginho and Sterling with little success. Shouldn't the Gunners be more ambitious in the market in much the same way Liverpool have this summer in targeting the very best in Europe in order to be competitive in all competitions?

I’m looking at what Arsenal are doing in the transfer market, and I have to say, so far these are not signings that have got me jumping out of my sofa excited for them to start the new season. 

They’re signing a back-up goalkeeper from Chelsea, and they are bringing in a 31-year-old midfielder from Brentford. I’m sorry, but those are not the type of signings that will take you up a level and bring you closer to the title. 

I’m frustrated because I’ve tipped Arsenal to do something in the last couple of years and they’ve let me down. We all know what they need - a world-class striker. I want them to do something in the transfer market that makes the world go, ‘Arsenal means business.’ No disrespect to these players, but that isn’t going to be the reaction. 

I’m still waiting. There is time left, but I’m still waiting for Arsenal to do what they need to do. 


Arsenal

Is Christian Norgaard an upgrade on Thomas Partey?

I just don’t understand why Arsenal are signing Christian Norgaard and are letting Thomas Partey go. OK, Partey is 32 and Norgaard is 31, but why spend the money on a player when you already have someone like Partey in the club. 

With Zubimendi arriving, Partey would likely have been his back-up, and perhaps he wanted to play more or perhaps Arsenal didn’t think he was worth the contract that they wanted, but for me, it doesn’t make sense to then let him leave and spend £10m on a replacement that is a year younger. 

I think it would have made more sense to keep Partey or sign a youngster, not go like for like with a new player that will have no sell-on value. 


Chelsea

What have you seen from Chelsea at the Club World Cup that you like?

Chelsea have shown they’ve got a lot of character, even if the squad is very young, it’s a team with character. Overall, I think everyone can be happy with the club’s tournament so far because they’ve got to the quarter-finals, where they will play against the Brazilian club Palmeiras, so you have to say that they’ve got as good chance of making it to the semi-final.

From what we’ve seen so far, the European clubs are mostly performing well. The Brazilian clubs have also done well too, but I suspect that Chelsea will probably have a little bit too much quality for Palmeiras. I think we’ve seen a tournament where the big European clubs have taken it seriously, and there were some doubts about that before a ball was kicked.

For me, it’s hard to evaluate where Chelsea are based on what we’ve seen of them in the tournament because they haven’t played another big, big club yet. Let’s wait and see how they get on when they play one of the giants before making any sweeping statements, but so far, so good for Enzo Maresca and his team.

Was Enzo Maresca right to criticise the tournament being held in America and does he need to be careful what he says in press conferences? 

It's good to express yourself, but sometimes you must be careful. I like the way that Maresca communicates – he has a strong personality. He speaks his mind, but we all know what press conferences can be like, sometimes things are said in the heat of the moment, and perhaps he needs to temper his thoughts and opinions at times.

At the end of the day, a two hour break because of the weather, what can you do about it? You have to accept it and move on, even if it's difficult for everyone. Not just for the players, for the fans as well.

For Maresca, if he wants to express his frustration and send a message about whether the games should be played in the USA, I think he must send it in a different way.

I wonder from a player's point of view, and if you're in the dressing room, are you happy that he's made those comments? Because he's really backing his players.

Listen, every manager will protect their players. The game was stopped for two hours, of course, it's not good for the players because you have to go back on the pitch. You have to be careful because the chances of getting an injury will increase and Chelsea have suffered a lot with injuries over the last couple of seasons, so perhaps that is why he was so angry. What was the alternative? The only way to do it was to finish the game, there wasn’t another choice.

You can't do anything. If the weather is so bad that the authorities tell you not to play, then you have to listen. FIFA are right to stop the game. You have to protect the players.

Enzo Maresca, he just needs to be calm. Enzo, you need to chill out a little bit.

Enzo Fernandez has been Chelsea’s best player at the Club World Cup. Is he showing the signs that he can be a midfielder that dominates matches next season in the Premier League? 

Enzo Fernandez is starting to show why Chelsea signed him for so much money. Since the beginning of the year, we’re starting to see the same Enzo that was brilliant for Argentina at the World Cup.

He’s starting to show glimpses of his international level – which is always world class – for the club.

At the beginning, when he arrived at Chelsea, it was a little bit difficult for him. The manager didn't know where to put him, so that's why we’ve seen Maresca slowly start to change his system, and he is now finding the best system that suits his qualities.

Fernandez is a player who has to be almost free in the pitch, Youhave to allow him to go forward, make late runs. If you give him that freedom, he’ll score a lot of goals. There are times when I watch him play, I look at the areas of the pitch that he likes to operate in and how he crashes the box, almost like a second striker, he reminds me of Frank Lampard.

Frank was the same. At the end of the day, if Enzo wasn’t scoring goals or creating goals, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, so he’s doing something right; he’s getting better when he puts on a Chelsea shirt.

He’s starting to become a very important player for the club. He's doing his job in midfield. He can cover the pitch, and maybe the defensive part of his game is 30%, with getting forward being dangerous, scoring goals and creating opportunities the remaining 70%.

Is this the season where he really puts himself in the conversation of being one of the best midfielders in the Premier League?

I think this coming season will be his best yet for Chelsea. When I look at his improvement, he’s on the right path. It’s a World Cup year, so he will want to be in good form for that.

I don’t know him, but like most South American players, I suspect that he dreams of playing in La Liga one day. I suspect that he dreams of playing for Real Madrid, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did play there at some stage in his career.

For Enzo to play for Real, he knows he will have to be Chelsea’s best performer in most games. He knows he will have to have a great Champions League campaign. I expect goals from him this season. I think he could have a great season, and maybe he’ll move on after the World Cup.

One of the players that's been the most impacted by Enzo Fernandez kind of playing a little bit more higher, a little bit more centrally is Cole Palmer. Obviously, he would live to play in that number 10 role. And that is where he is at his best.

There are times where you can have Palmer and Fernandez operating quite centrally, maybe against lesser opponents, but when they played against the better teams, Palmer is often the guy that has moved over to the left or he's moved over to the right. And sometimes his body language, it looks like he's a bit frustrated. Is that something that he needs to work on?

If that is the only thing that Cole Palmer needs to worry about, then he’s doing fine. I don’t think Cole Palmer needs to work on his body language at all – I don’t see that. You may seem him a little bit frustrated because he’s a winner and he wants to have the ball all the time, to be the playmaker, and with his quality, he can do a lot of things. He can cause a lot of damage against the opponent.

At the moment, he’s not having the same impact. He’s not scoring as many goals, but his movement, what he's doing, he makes the team play better. He’s sacrificing himself for the team, and sometimes great players need to do that.

But body language? That’s ridiculous. He’s frustrated and that’s normal because he just wants to score goals and give assists to his teammates.

When he starts scoring again, and it won’t be long, you won’t see a player that is frustrated. Honestly, when he gets that feeling back, you could play him left, right, wherever. He will feel like himself, like the main man.

When the juice comes back, Palmer will be happy again.

Speaking of goals, Nicholas Jackson, he's got a bit of competition now that Chelsea have signed Liam Delap. He got the silly red card in the Club World Cup. He had a silly red card against Newcastle in a really vital game towards the end of last season. I know he's a young guy, but….

Let me top you there. Listen, listen. How old is Jackson now? He's 24. When we were talking about him two years ago, you could maybe use that as an excuse, his age. That doesn’t wash anymore. He’s had two full seasons at Chelsea; he’s played a lot of games. He has more experience.

It'svery difficult to understand how the striker can get a red card. That shouldn’t be happening in modern football. He shouldn’t be having these discipline problems. Two red cards in quick succession, that is not acceptable.

He’s a lucky boy, because Chelsea haven’t got that world-class 9 to replace him. He didn’t have a brilliant season last year, but there isn’t anyone that can challenge him. In the best Chelsea teams of the last decade, Jackson sits on the bench.

Now Delap has joined, he has to be very careful. I think he will start the season as the first choice, but if he doesn’t score or makes another mistake and loses his control, he’s going to be sat on the bench. He’ll become the second choice, and he’ll only have himself to blame.

There's a little bit more attention on him now with the discipline and he's lucky because Chelsea did not bring in a world class striker. They've been linked with Joao Pedro. He's not a world class striker. He'sa good player.

Yeah, Pedro is a good player, but his numbers are nearly identical to Jackson. Is he an improvement on Jackson? I don’t know.

Pedro isn’t a world-class striker, and it looks like Chelsea won't get that world-class striker. It looks like they will remain faithful to the players that they have because we can all see that this is a young group that are getting better and developing in the right way.  

If the team keeps developing, then I think they can take another step forward, but they’re still missing the world-class players that will put them in the title conversation.

We all know what Chelsea’s strategy is now. I actually think that it’s starting to work, but it just means it will take the club a season or two before this group is ready to compete for the biggest prizes, whereas in my day, we went out and bought the best players to win the league that very season.

Chelsea keep buying these attacking players and they'regood players. They're not world class maybe, butthey're good and they have the potential to be world class. But the one area that they just aren't investing in for me is, and we've spoken about this loads ever since Thiago Silva retired, but they don't have that top tier, world-class centre back yet. They just don't seem to think that's an issue. Do you think that's an issue?

I still think that the biggest issue with Chelsea not having an experienced, world-class CB in the squad is that it means promising youngsters like Levi Colwill, he doesn’t have someone to learn from and improve alongside. That is the biggest problem.

Playing as a CB in the Premier League for a top club like Chelsea, that is very difficult. That is why I keep saying that they need to sign a world-class CB who is capable of shouldering the responsibility of the back four while helping improve the level of the players we have. That is the only way young CBs get to learn.

Levi would improve his game so much by playing alongside someone like Virgil van Dijk for example. Obviously, Chelsea can’t get him, but look at the improvement in Konate’s game. If he could play next to a more experienced player, he would make less mistakes and hone his game. He’s such a promising player with a massive future, but he’s doing it all on his own. When you look all the big defenders, that's how they improve. I want to see Colwill fulfil his potential.

What is the objective for Chelsea next season?

They won't win the Premier League. They will try to be close, that is sure, but they won't win the Premier League.

In the Champions League, they’ll be looking at a quarter-final or a semi-final. If they can achieve that, it will be another step. It means they are improving.

Chelsea is a club that must win trophies. I think next season they may be able to win the FA Cup or the Carabao Cup.


Chelsea defence

We know Chelsea are looking at a new GK. They put bids in for Mike Maigan but walked away. The latest name linked is Villa’s Emi Martinez? He’s a divisive character - a winner no doubt - would Enzo Maresca be taking a risk adding him to his dressing room? 

I don't know if Emi Martinez would be a good fit for Chelsea.

He's a big character, isn't he? I like him.

Hold on. How he behaves on the pitch, that doesn’t mean that he’s like that with his teammates in the dressing room. He might be very different with his own teammates.

He’s a good goalkeeper. Obviously, he was a key player for Argentina. He’s done well at Aston Villa since he joined them from Arsenal those years ago, but I have to admit, I have some serious doubts about whether he would be a good fit for Chelsea.

I don't know if he’s got the right profile to be the goalkeeper of Chelsea. When I think about his antics, I just don't think he would be a positive addition to the club.

People talk about his personality, his passion, I’m not sure that is a good fit for the club. I don't think he would be the right goalkeeper.

Chelsea need a goalkeeper that is as good as him or maybe better, but with a different profile. Someone that does their job without doing all of the other stuff that Martinez does.  

I'm sorry but give me the name of one goalkeeper with the same profile. Name another goalkeeper who grabs his crotch and dances around when he makes a save, one goalkeeper who has done that who has played for a big club. You won’t be able to name one.

Goalkeepers are crazy. Jens Lehmann, he was crazy. Carlo Cudicini, he was crazy. Cech was cool. Lehmann would never behave like Martinez – Martinez brings too much negative attention. You want a goalkeeper to make saves, keep clean sheets and leave the pitch. Martinez doesn’t do that.


General Prem

Arsenal have been the top club in London for the last few seasons now. Do you expect that to be the case this season? 

Excuse me?! The Top club in London? I’m sorry, but Arsenal have not been the top club in London over the last few years. What have Arsenal won in the last few years? Absolutely nothing. How many trophies have they lifted? Zero. 

You can’t claim that Arsenal are the top club in London. OK, they’ve finished second three seasons in a row, but that means nothing. Theyhaven’t won a thing!

If Arsenal fans think they’re the top club in London, honestly, they’re being laughed at. Chelsea fans are laughing at you. Tottenham fans are laughing at you. Do you know why? Because both of those clubs have won trophies and Arsenal have won absolutely nothing. 

Arsenal finished second. End of discussion. There are no prizes for second. OK, they’ve finished above Chelsea and Tottenham, but those clubs got their hands on silver; they lifted trophies. 

The Conference League, people will say it was a small competition and that Chelsea should have won it, but by doing that they became the first club in the world to win every single major European trophy. Arsenal fans would be dreaming to be able to say something like that, but they have nothing. 

Tottenham, they had a horrible season in the Premier League, but it didn’t matter because they won the Europa League and qualified for the Champions League. Did Arsenal win a European trophy last season? 

The Arsenal fans may not like me for saying it, they may criticise me again blah, blah blah, but let me tell you one thing: the only thing that matters to a professional footballer is what trophies you win. It’s as simple as that. If you asked the Arsenal players, would you have liked to have swapped with Tottenham or Chelsea this season, they would be diplomatic and say no, but trust me, those players will be jealous that they haven’t experienced the feeling of winning silverware. 

The Arsenal fans may not like me for it, but the simple truth is that you’re not the top club in London. Top clubs win titles. You can only claim to be the top club when you lift a trophy.  


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