I think, ignoring the brouhaha, we lost out badly on that deal as the extra £5k a week would have saved us suffering the likes of Silvestre and denied the chavs a ready-made LB.

There was never anything to gain by him leaving us. In hindsight cash all the way would have been better, but it's not like it genuinely mattered. We wouldn't have been able to sign a player on Gallas's level anyway back then. He could have worked out.

Ofcourse we did, we lost arguably the best left back in the world, let alone the League and got a clown in return.

Anyone else?

This is not gonna end well.
Cashley's subsequent behaviour has ensured that he is, now, one of them.

Gunner89 wrote:

Cole shouldn't have done that but all former players accounts I've read that he was let down by the board regarding the wages.

Its well documented that he wanted his agent paid by the club on top of his own wages. They were set to make him basically the best paid fullback in the world. Cole was just an extremely greedy rat.

Klaus wrote:

There was never anything to gain by him leaving us. In hindsight cash all the way would have been better, but it's not like it genuinely mattered. We wouldn't have been able to sign a player on Gallas's level anyway back then. He could have worked out.

To be fair to Wenger I thought Gallas was a great player when we got him. He'd been immense for Chelsea. I don't think anyone really predicted what a monumental failure he'd be at Arsenal.

I don't think he was a failure exactly, not as a defender that is. 

He wrecked the dressing room though. He may just as well have scored an own goal or two. 

Mourinho is such a bitter spiteful man.

Most of the appeal of signing Cech would be to get at him. That aside Id be ok with Cech signing but I wouldn't be unzipping my flies

Galas was fine until he destroyed the team psyche with the sulk. I thought he'd been better than Terry at Chelsea. Can't complain about the Gallas - Cole once we accept that Cole was a goner.

Rohit wrote:

I don't think he was a failure exactly, not as a defender that is. 

He wrecked the dressing room though. He may just as well have scored an own goal or two. 

He was dodgy as hell as a defender too. A few goals cut him some slack but overall he was garbage for us.

Absolutely disagree. Gallas was a great defender and he performed really well for us. People keep talking about the Birmingham incident but other than that he was all positive.

I am sure 90% of the Arsenal fans were happy with that deal because Gallas was easily one of the best central defenders at that time.

Yeah, nobody could have predicted the way he went but at that time we got a great defender from Chelsea. No love at all for Cole, I will never forget reading that "when my agent told me on the phone that I'll get 55kpw I nearly swerved off the road" bullshit.

Get the feeling Cech will sign for us

qs! wrote:

Gunner89 wrote:

Cole shouldn't have done that but all former players accounts I've read that he was let down by the board regarding the wages.

Its well documented that he wanted his agent paid by the club on top of his own wages. They were set to make him basically the best paid fullback in the world. Cole was just an extremely greedy rat.

Yeah, as I understood it he wanted a 5k a week wage for his agent. The club quite rightly said they would pay this but it would be coming from his wage (much like you might have something like health insurance paid straight from your salary for convenience instead of having to organise payment separately) since the agent was his employee. But he felt the club should be paying the agent on top of that. Not even sure it would have been within the rules for the club to have an agent on its payroll.

Thought we were getting the better of the deal at the time and I like Gallas as a defender initially, but obviously it all went wrong in the end.

Clrnc wrote:

Absolutely disagree. Gallas was a great defender and he performed really well for us. People keep talking about the Birmingham incident but other than that he was all positive.

I am sure 90% of the Arsenal fans were happy with that deal because Gallas was easily one of the best central defenders at that time.

When at Chelsea he threatened to score an own goal if he didn't get his way, Jerome Rothen has described in his book how Gallas used to steal from other players bags Diaby has corroborated this, he was hated by the other players wherever he went utter utter cunt of a human being.

L'Equipe saying Cech deal is close.