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Former Chelsea defender William Gallas claims that he is extremely surprised to see his former club finish only 10th in the league table, it has been one of the disastrous campaigns for the blues.

Not only have they missed out on Champions League or any form of European football, but they came very close to finishing outside the top 10 after more than two decades. Gallas may have retired from football only recently, but he still has memories of his time at Chelsea. The Frenchman claims that Chelsea will be able to recover rather quickly when manager Anthony Conte comes in a summer.

The former Juventus boss has been signed on a three-year contract and he will take over from into the manager Guus Hiddink. Chelsea have had immense success with Italian managers in the past. The likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto di Matteo, and many others have played a prominent role in the improvement of the club. Gallas claims that any club can go through such a disastrous period, but the important thing is to recover well and soon. Gallas says that Conte is a manager who wants to win tournaments and this attitude may suit Chelsea as a club.

Gallas represented Chelsea from 2001 to 2006.”It was very, very hard to see Chelsea in this position, especially since I spent five years there.But it can happen, it can happen to the greatest clubs. I think next season will be another season. I hope that we will see Chelsea at the top.I knew it was not easy for them but seen from the outside, it was difficult to accept this situation. As I said, every season is different.Next season will be a new season for Chelsea. I think he [Conte] will bring his experience,” said Gallas.

French centre back, William Gallas is reported to be among the coalition of football icons that will promote peace and unity in Ghana ahead of the election.

GNA sports reveal that the former Gunner and Blues defender will join Ex-captain of Ghana, Stephen Appiah, before the election to promote tranquility as the nation goes to the polls.

The aim is to ensure unity despite the divisions in party.
The player who joined Arsenal amidst a controversy in 2006 will join by former Manchester United duo of Dwight Yorke and Louis Saha in the peace promotion campaign.

Appiah will lead a world XI side to play Kumasi Asante Kotoko and the Black Stars in Kumasi and Accra this June. The 2016 Peace Ambassador set the games up in a bid to promote peace in the West African country.

Sports Events organizers, Primeval Media and UnityMatchGH are the main promoters of the unity match. The match aims to draw the importance of peace during the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections on the 7th of November much later in the year.

Appiah was recently named 2016 peace ambassador. He has been a unifying factor for his country since active participation in the National team and continues now, even in retirement. Appiah is also involving Arsenal star, Sol Campbell in the unity match. The match will be sponsoered by telecoms giants, Vodafone.

Gallas was reported to have had threatened to score own goals in their shirt if they did not let him leave, prior to his move to The Gunners. He has vehemnety denied the claim several times. He won two Premier League titles with the Blues under Jose Mourinho but left under a cloud in 2006. He left for Arsenal as part of the Ashley Cole transfer the other way.

The Frenchman played four years in arsenal before to the Spurs in 2010/2011 season. The player eventually ended his career after his spell at Perth glory.

Frenchman William Eric Gallas was born on 17th August 1977. He began his footballing career in France before moving to Chelsea in 2001, Arsenal in 2006 and later to Tottenham Hotspur in 2010 all of England.

He is one player loathed by most Arsenal fans; not necessarily because he left for the Gunners’ bitter rivals; but for his inconsistent display towards his last few seasons at the London club.As a matter of fact, fans of the London club were relieved to see the back of the Frenchman after the management of the club deemed him surplus to requirement at the time of his transfer.

Regardless of his sour relationship with fans of the Gunners, William Gallas has a lot of memorable moments as a professional footballer in France, England and finally Australia where he eventually retired. He was maligned by fans of the North London side for publicly criticizing his team mates during a media interview; a controversy that eventually saw him lose his role as the captain of the club
Gallas won the Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006; making his career in England a successful one.

His career in the English League began in 2001 when he was brought from Marseille in France by current Leicester City Manager, Claudio Ranieri with Chelsea paying the sum of £6.2 million for his services.

Gallas gained his first international cap as a French player while playing for Chelsea. He was named a member of the French team to the 2006 World Cup.

Known for courting controversies, the former Caen of France defender threatened to score an own goal against his club Chelsea in 2006 if not allowed to leave the club, according to a statement issued by the club. He however, denied such claim, but was later granted his wish to leave as part of the deal that brought Ashley Cole from Arsenal to Chelsea.

After 84 caps for his country, Gallas announced his retirement from international football at the age of 33.

William Gallas went from performing with the French outfits Caen and Marseille to being signed by the Premier League side Chelsea for a transfer fee in the region of £6m back in 2001.

Claudio Raineri was the manager of Chelsea during that year and the Italian manager decided to partner him up with John Terry as well as Marcel Desailly as the main defensive figures for Chelsea in that period of time.

It was when he performed with Chelsea that William Gallas started to make a name for himself as the French defender was called up and given the chance to perform for his national team and performed with his French side for the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup as well as for the 2004 Euro’s.

Things were also going successfully for Gallas with Chelsea as he was a key figure for the Premier League club and this was clear to see as the English club won successive league titles with Gallas and John Terry being the heart of the defense during these title winning seasons which went from the season of 2004-05 until 2005-06.

Jose Mourinho was the manager during these seasons and the Portuguese had nothing but praise to say concerning William Gallas as the highly rated manager talked about Gallas during an interview.

“Fantastic player. He’s the kind of player that when you have him in your squad, instead of having 22, you have 24 or 25. He plays right-back, left-back, central defender on the right and on the left. I don’t remember a William mistake; I just remember his untouchable performances.” Former Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho said.

When William Galla’s contract with Chelsea ran out, the French defender joined Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur before eventually going out to retire with Perth Glory but his time spent with these clubs wasn’t as enthralling or prosperous when compared to when he performed in Stamford Bridge.

After having made 15 appearances in 1 season for Perth Glory but his retirement arrived in a rather disappointing fashion as the French defender just didn’t appear to be the player that he was back with Chelsea and he will always be remembered by the disastrous mistake that he made during a match of Perth Glory against Western Sydney Wanderers which was played on February 22nd of 2014 and his mistake allowed the opposing team on scoring a goal which helped their opponents in securing a 2-0 victory.

Guus Hiddink doesn’t think that Cesc Fabregas would be morally affected if there is some hostility dished out his way in the upcoming Premiership match versus Arsenal.

Febregas is believed to be going to have to cope with some verbal coming from the Arsenal supporters at Emirates on Sunday.

But, according to Hiddink, the Spain playmaker is strong enough to handle that and it would be the last thing to be bothering him.

Hiddink is actually of the view that it would fire Fabregas up if anything.

Fabregas was an Arsenal captain during his previous stint in the Premier League and was a highly respected individual at the club.

But, after joining the local rival club Chelsea the previous season, he has turned into a villain in the eyes of the Gunners faithful and they are just not ready to forgive him for that.

Whenever the midfielder has featured for Chelsea against the Gunners in the last one and half years, the fans have always had something to say to him and it has happened not only at Emirates, but, at Stamford Bridge too.

However, Fabregas hasn’t shown any sort of frustration over that so far and that’s something that Hiddink has liked.

In the words of Hiddink, “There are different ways of reacting to criticism, but, the correct way is to perform and to make your team do well and that’s what Cesc Fabregas has done.”

When asked about the ‘snake’ remark made to Fabregas recently by a Chelsea security official, Hiddink said, “As I told you, he is not one of those who get bothered too much by the negative comments. It would in fact motivate him.”

That insulting remark cost that security official his job as he was handed axe by Chelsea.

It’s already been over one month since Shaun Wright-Phillips began his training with the MLS Side New York Red Bulls after he was released by Queens Park Rangers; he opted to make a switch overseas and has established a closer relationship with the MLS team after having participated on a number of training sessions with New York Red Bulls and along with his brother Bradley.

Bradley Wright-Phillips is the younger brother of Shaun Wright-Phillips and the 30 year old forward finished the previous season of the Major League Soccer by scoring 32 goals which was the highest amount of goals scored in that campaign. Shaun Wright-Phillips is believed to have taken an interest in the New York Red Bulls and is considering joining the American team where he will have the chance to play alongside his brother and help his younger brother in scoring even more goals.

The coach of the New York Red Bulls, Jesse Marsch has stated in numerous occasions that Shaun Wright-Phillips is only taking part in the training sessions of the MLS club and the manager is not even considering signing the experienced but there might be something else going on.

A few days ago there was a poll which was made in twitter where the supporters of New York Red Bulls would like see Shaun Wright-Phillips joining the team as an official player and the response was that the majority of the clubs supporters wanted to see the English performer with the jersey of the MLS side.

When Bradley Wright-Phillips was asked about how things were going with his brother, the MLS player replied by saying: “He loves New Jersey, he loves where we are, we have lovely neighbors. He loves it, there’s nothing to worry about here. It’s great in the summer, lovely He has really taken to it, he likes it here.”

Shaun Wright-Phillips is reaching an age where it’s time to consider what to do in the twilight stages of his career and spending it with the New York Red Bullls might just be his best option as he can play in a league and a team where the pressure will not be as high compared to other clubs and not to mention the fact that he would be playing along with his brother.

Alexandre Lacazette has confirmed that he has no intentions of leaving the French league at this moment in his career.

This comes as a major blow for clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool, who were thought to be looking at him as a potential signing in this transfer window.Lacazette has emerged as a real star in the French league after scoring more goals than the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic last season.Lacazette was a major reason behind Lyon finishing second in the table behind winners Paris St Germain, who have spent a lot of money. The striker has scored 27 goals compared to Ibrahimovic’s19 goals over the course of the league season.

This impressive campaign has seen him linked with teams like Liverpool and Arsenal. Due to the French connections, it is highly thought that Arsenal are the favourites to sign him. Lyon, though, have been using him in the pre-season friendly matches so far.Lacazette proved that last season was no flash in the pan after scoring in the 2-1 win over AC Milan. Even though it was a pre-season friendly, the 24-year-old showed some impressive qualities during the match. Apart fromLacazette, only Gignac of Marseille had managed to score more than 20 league goals last season.

“I want to show those who think that I have my head elsewhere that I’m still here. I have already said that I want to continue with Lyon.I have shown that I’m fully committed. It’s football that interests me, not money. I hope to have a strong season. It’s good. We want to highlight our preparation, to work on our fluidity. We know each other for the most part. We played a good match against a strong team and in a nice atmosphere. It gives you the desire to continue,” said the striker.

After failing to secure a new contract at Stoke City, Wilson Palacios has been analysing a lot of options across the world.

There have been offers for the Honduras midfielder from the likes of Bolton Wanderers in the English Championship. Even though it is the second division of English football, it still attracts a lot of viewers and is considered as one of the top leagues in the world. Rather than move to Bolton and stay in England, Palacios has secured a move back to North America. He has not yet signed a permanent contract with a club in this region.

However, he has been on a trial basis with MLS outfit Philadelphia Union. The 30-year-old will represent an ideal signing for the club since he brings a mixture of youth, experience, and quality. Rather than be one of the players coming to a MLS club at the end of their careers, Palacios will be able to offer a number of years of top level football. The former Tottenham midfielder was once a £6 million signing for Stoke not too long ago. However, he has struggled with fitness in the last couple of years and Stoke City did not extend his contract.

“Wilson’s been in with us for about a week now.He’s done well. He’ll be here through Wednesday, we’ll have to make a decision after that, but he’s been good.He’s a guy whose career speaks for itself at the international level in the World Cup.With Tottenham, with Stoke, he’s a guy that’s played at big clubs. We had in him for the week to take a look at him,” said Philadelphia Union manager Jim Curtin. Philadelphia will be hoping that signing Palacios on a permanent basis will help them improve form, which sees them seventh in the Eastern conference.

Harry Kane has risen and turned into the main star of Tottenham Hotspur, at the age of 21 he already is the top goal-scorer of the Premier League club after having scored a total of 20 goals in 30 appearances.

Having such a young and promising player at the disposal of Mauricio Pochettino is great news for the English club as they have one of the most coveted players in Europe with clubs that are willing to spend huge amounts of cash in order to sign Harry Kane who has already demonstrated that he is able to score consistent goals at a very competitive league and he has also scored for the English national football team.

At the same time this is not such great news for other players in the team of Mauricio Pochettino who have had to settle with a place on the sidelines at White Hart Lane and one of these players is Emmanuel Adebayor.

Adebayor is not a regular starter at the Premier League club and that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be changing anytime soon as Harry Kane is taking the spotlight and the 31 year old forward hailing from Togo is being rumored on leaving Tottenham Hotspur at the end of the season.

Tottenham Hotspur has already tried to offload Adebayor in the past but have failed on doing it as the Togolese player still has a contract with the English club and it lasts for one more year. In order for Tottenham to offload Adebayor, they will have to pay the difference of the remaining days which is left in his contract and you have to take into consideration that Adebayor earns $150,000 each week.

If Mauricio Pochettino really does want to release Adebayor, they will have to pay the player a hefty amount of cash during the summer transfer window and not many clubs are even willing to pay that high salary to a player who is 31 years old and has struggled to score consistent goals.

The former Arsenal captain, William Gallas announced his retirement from playing football back in October of 2014 as the French defender stated that he just couldn’t continue performing any longer at a competitive stage.

William Gallas confirmed his retirement as he said: “It is not an easy thing to announce.You always tell yourself that you can keep going, but, I think today I cannot go on any longer.”

The retired French defender was a very controversial one as he had a number of incidents which have marked his career for the worse. One of these incidents occurred back when Gallas was an Arsenal player and after he was viewed criticizing his teammates, Arsene Wenger decided to strip the defender off of his captaincy role.

Gallas became the enemy of many Arsenal fans after the French defender decided to make a move to their rivals Tottenham Hotspurs on a free transfer.

Even with all of the controversial moments that William Gallas has stirred up during his playing career and his decision to join the biggest rivals of his former club, there still are figures in the world of football that consider William Gallas to be one of the best defenders of his generation who had a very impressive career and Jose Mourinho praised everything that the French player accomplished back in his time.

“Fantastic player.He’s the kind of player that when you have in your squad, instead of having 22, you have 24 or 25. He players right-back, left-back, central defender on the right and on the left.

“I don’t remember a William mistake; I just remember his untouchable performances.And now obviously he has to be very proud of his fantastic career and I wish him the best for the rest of his life.” Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho said as he lauded William Gallas.

Jose Mourinho worked alongside William Gallas a few years ago in Stamford Bridge and the Portuguese manager was proud to say that Gallas was one of the best players he has worked with in his managerial career.