William Gallas has taken a swipe at his former club Arsenal, slating their players and criticising the decision to hire manager Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners’ most recent season saw them fail to qualify for European football for the first time in a quarter of a century after finishing eighth in the division for th second year running.
Mikel Arteta oversaw the end of both campaigns, and former club captain William Gallas claims Arsenal made a mistake hiring such an inexperienced manager, before taking a swipe at the players also.
“Mikel Arteta was not ready yet to manage a club like Arsenal,” Gallas told TheSun.
“OK, he was assistant coach at Manchester City. But he had never managed a team. It is completely different.
“The board made a mistake picking him. I’m sure he will be a great manager but you need to have experience to manage a big club.
“To be honest, it is a great shame for the Arsenal fans after finishing eighth.
“Arsenal is not the same Arsenal we knew 18, 20 years ago. We had players who were strong with strong personalities.”
The club has slowly dropped away from the top of the table over the last decade, and you can’t help but believe that the changes at the club need to be coming from the top.
While Arteta’s appointment had to be a long-term decision, the club needs to show they are serious about bringing us back to the top by backing the manager to make some serious changes to the first-team squad this summer, otherwise it will prove to be a wasted decision.
Arteta has had 18 months with the team and should know his plans to try and take the club forward now, but there is most definitely the fear that the task in hand is too big for the manager.
Will Mikel prove Gallas to be wrong?
Patrick