EXCLUSIVE | William Gallas on Chelsea: ‘They spend money but don’t have anything to show for it.’ | OneFootball

Get French Football News this week had the opportunity to ask former France international William Gallas for his thoughts on les Bleus, as well as on his former clubs Olympique de Marseille, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

Three of your former clubs – Marseille, Chelsea and Tottenham – have struggled this season. Why do you think that is? What are the similarities and differences? 

It’s different problems between Marseille, Chelsea and Tottenham. It’s never easy to play for Marseille as a player, or to manage the team, the pressure is very high. The fans are very crazy about football there, you have to choose the right people to have in your team to deal with that. Marseille have a problem at the moment because it looks like they won’t qualify for the Champions League, which is a big blow for the people in the city. They need a good result against Rennes. The problem is the communication between the players and the manager. It’s not like it was 20 years ago, managers need to find a different approach when speaking to a young squad.

With Tottenham, they were already in the same position they’re in now. They won the Europa League last season, everybody was happy, the fans were happy, the club was happy, but they didn’t solve the real problem. That’s why they are fighting relegation. It won’t be easy for them to stay up, I saw their game against Leeds and you can see it will be hard for Tottenham, and they have a London derby with Chelsea soon.

We know the problem with Chelsea: the owner has to manage the club better. The fans are not happy with what is happening at Chelsea. We knew the owner was not managing the club in the right way a few years ago. Now they’ve been through multiple managers. They spend money but don’t have anything to show for it. Yes, they won the Club World Cup, but it’s not enough.

Another of your former clubs – Arsenal – are having a great season and are in the Champions League final against French opposition. Can they win the final vs Paris Saint-Germain?

Anything can happen in one game. It all depends on whether it’s your day or not. One team can have a special performance on the day. If PSG don’t perform as they usually do, Arsenal have a good chance to win the Champions League. The worrying thing for Arsenal is PSG’s last Champions League game. I was very surprised, they have shown everyone they can defend a lead very well. This will worry Arsenal even more. They won’t just attack like they did in the first leg against Bayern Munich, where it ended 5-4. When they went to Munich, everyone expected a similar result, but no, PSG were very strong and complete.

A big factor in Arsenal’s success is centre back William Saliba. How important do you think he is for Arsenal and France? 

William Saliba is fantastic for Arsenal, he’s had a great season. He still makes some silly mistakes, like against Atletico Madrid, and he can still improve. In France, Saliba doesn’t have the same top performances for the team. It might be because he doesn’t have the same players and system around him, but he needs to step up. I’m waiting for him to step up for France.

I saw that you recently named Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele in your dream 5-a-side team. My guess is that they both get into the current France team – although arguably Makélélé is needed more than Zidane, as France have the likes of Michael Olise, Rayan Cherki, Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappé. Who would you play in the forward positions for France? 

Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise will play, but I think Rayan Cherki will be on the bench. It will be difficult to fit them all on the pitch. Kylian Mbappé will be the striker. Maybe Cherki can get in the starting XI, but I’d be worried about how well the team will defend as a unit. Most of them are not great at that side of the game, Didier Deschamps will have to think twice. That front four can play against weaker sides, but against the bigger teams, he’ll have to think who he should start.

William Gallas was speaking exclusively to Get French Football News courtesy of BetVictor

GFFN | Jeremy Smith