The Agenda Against William Gallas Continues

Today, Arsenal conducted early business and signed Thomas Vermaelen. It has been stated, pretty much unanimously, amongst bloggers that nobody has seen all that much of Thomas Vermaelen. The popular clip that people have seen features Vermaelen scoring a header against Aston Villa. All we know about him are the facts. He is now officially listed as 6 ft tall, and he was bought by Arsene Wenger.

The key thing about his signing goes beyond just the fact that he's a defender. Most people have been pining for a defensive player to be bought, so desperate that people wanted Senderos back from AC Milan. The most intriguing piece of fact to me is the fact that Vermaelen is a left-sided central defender. For the last two years, William Gallas has been performing the task of being the left-sided central defender. Kolo Toure remained in his much more comfortable, especially for a right-footed player, position. This truth goes almost completely unnoticed by Arsenal fans. At Chelsea, Gallas actually had to play many times at left back. All this being said, Gallas's best position is in the right side of central defense.

After our Vermaelen signing and possible return of Senderos, the rumors of Manchester City hunting Kolo Toure have been revived. These rumors were based on truth. During the January transfer window, Toure submitted a transfer request, something that I refused to believe until it was later confirmed as true by both Wenger and Toure himself. This shocked me. The bloggers were split 50/50. Some were shocked that Toure would leave and thought he was quitting without showing much fight in trying to win back a starting role. Others interpreted it as Gallas being such a prat that a man like Toure, surely Arsenal through and through, wanted to leave.

Continue to today, and all the blogs are talking about the Kolo Toure/Manchester City link re-emerging. Nobody can really say why, but they all assume that William Gallas is the more likely to leave between the two. Why this is the conclusion, I have no idea. Maybe it's because Gallas hasn't said much since his injury. Or maybe it's because they cannot envision Gallas continuing with us after this past season.

Whatever it is, I'm willing to bet that Kolo Toure leaves before William Gallas does. That's not based on any sort of preference or bias. It has to do with the fact that there is a concrete link concerning Toure and that Gallas is still the best central defender we have at the club.