William Gallas is not the first defender to cross the north London divide and the grief he gets for it certainly will not be the worst
The severed pig’s head that landed with a gristly squelch at the feet of Luís Figo as he tried to take a corner for Real Madrid against Barcelona in 2002 was the best evidence yet that tribal hatred was never an English copyright.
Figo’s crime, in Barça’s eyes, was to have crossed a political, cultural and spiritual divide to wear the badge of the oppressor. Poor Figo returned to the scene of some of his finest memories and found himself in an abattoir.
Since Premier League security precludes the carrying in of animal parts, William Gallas is unlikely to need a nose-peg when he visits Arsenal as a Tottenham Hotspur player on 21 November, but he would be wise to take some ear-plugs.
Gallas is collecting big London clubs the way some people try to complete the set of Hard Rock Cafe mugs. From Chelsea, he ventured north-east to Arsenal and then to Spurs. By my reckoning he will finish his career at the end of that urban arc with West Ham, where many a puffing Billy has ended up before announcing his plan to run for mayor.
On the most simple level, when Harry Redknapp turned once more to his Rolodex of classy bargain buys, Gallas was a discarded 33-year-old in search of a last big wage. Who better to turn to in those circumstances than a manger who has honed a reputation for extending the harvest years of ageing luminaries and whose team still ought to qualify for the Champions League group stage, despite the 3-2 first-leg lead that Young Boys of Berne bring to a qualifier at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night?
As Redknapp said with exquisite nonchalance: “It’s not like we’re signing Tony Adams.” But they did sign a former Arsenal captain with a history of volatility and the potential to destroy Tottenham’s hard-won harmony. Thus did Gallas pass into the ranks of outlaws who forgot that north London players are meant to sign blood oaths to their employers and only tip rubbish over the fence in one direction.
The antagonism industry will preview Gallas’s return to Highbury & Islington in late November with bonfire imagery, but my guess is that Arsenal supporters will jeer only because their software tells them to. Most saw him as a piece of theatre: an aristocrat defender, certainly, but one who was never more than one bad defeat away from a good sob or a sit-down protest.
In other words, Gallas was never heading for the club’s Mount Rushmore, especially as his four years there were quiet ones for Arsène Wenger’s trophy polishers. Arsenal fans will know he has been taken on a ‘free’ by Redknapp to be Ledley King’s spare knees, and because Sébastien Bassong, another of his centre-halves, is susceptible when the best strikers accelerate past his shoulder and make him turn. As for Jonathan Woodgate, keep his dinner hot, he may come back one day.
David Bentley, Rohan Ricketts, Jamie O’Hara, David Jenkins, Laurie Brown and Jimmy Brain all crossed the wire, too, but only Sol Campbell had his life bent out of shape by the hostility the move engendered. We all know why. Before leaving Tottenham, Campbell said he would stay, and told Spurs Monthly he would never play for Arsenal. He has paid for that ever since.
Whatever they say to justify it, the vilification of Campbell by some Tottenham supporters has been the most disgusting individual persecution saga of the last 10 years.
“Sol, Sol, wherever you may be, not long now till lunacy, and we won’t give a f*** when you’re hanging from a tree, you Judas c*** with HIV.” This is the chant that landed some Spurs fans in hot water at Fratton Park when Campbell was at Portsmouth. Liverpool fans gloating over Munich and Manchester United supporters chanting “You killed your own fans [at Hillsborough]” also take high rank on the list of football taunts that make you want to abandon your seat and go straight home, along with the hissing that denotes Auschwitz gas when some Chelsea supporters are trying to upset Spurs.
Gallas will not replace Campbell on the north London dartboard, partly because old Sol is still there, by virtue of his move to Newcastle, who will play Spurs twice in the Premier League and so extend the life of all that anti‑Campbell invective.
In the worst cases we see a curious morality at play, which has much to do with the modern catch-all, “disrespect”. Paul Ince was never forgiven by West Ham fans for parading his move to Manchester United before it was a reality. Campbell has been abused uphill and downhill for reneging on his promise never to play for Arsenal.
This shows that the old demand for loyalty, for fidelity, endures, even though most supporters reserve the right in their own lives, when job offers come up, to make the best decision for themselves and their families. The bit that has always baffled me is why a love for one’s own club is so often expressed as hatred for the neighbour. Gallas, to his credit, continues his London tour, unperturbed.
ArsenalTottenham HotspurPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk
