Gallas’ juvenile tantrum cost us the championship

Dressing-room fights, screaming matches with Manuel Almunia, and ‘a sulky child’ as captain – the former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann sheds new light on the club in his autobiography

Having William Gallas head the team in the 2007-08 season was problematic. We had learnt of his appointment in the papers and we all shook our heads. The previous season he had repeatedly turned up very late for training or had left the training ground without permission. With the promotion, Arsene Wenger apparently wanted to appeal to Gallas’s sense of responsibility, trying to turn him from Saul to Paul. Initially, this went well, until Gallas once briefly lost his nerve.

We were due to play Birmingham away in February, and Arsene took me out of goal again. In the conference room, the boss informed me about my renewed banishment. “Jens, I know you’ve been playing well and are looking fresh and sharp on the pitch again. But I need to give Manuel Almunia a chance; it’s what you, too, would expect me to do after an injury.”

He was making a mistake, I retorted. During the final sprint for the title, he would need experience, and Manuel was playing his first proper season at this level. He had been playing very well, but when a player starts playing at the top level this late, he focuses on himself and his performance, but is unable to support others.

Wenger ended the dispute with the words, “If he plays poorly, you’re back in”, followed by a chat about private things and my future. We would argue, but only on a professional level. As soon as the conversation swerved towards things aside from football, it became harmonious and relaxed.

The game the next day was fateful: after three minutes, Birmingham centre-back Martin Taylor shattered Eduardo da Silva’s ankle with a tackle. We were all