France defender William Gallas will become the first player to appear in the league for London rivals Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur following his move across north London yesterday.
The Premier League club confirmed on their Web site that he had signed a one-year deal.
The former Arsenal skipper, 33 on Tuesday last week, became only the 14th player to move from Arsenal to Spurs in almost a century and will earn a unique place in the record books as the first to appear in competitive action for London’s three biggest clubs.
George Graham featured for Chelsea and Arsenal in the 1960s and 1970s and also later managed Arsenal and the Spurs.
Clive Allen played for Tottenham and Chelsea and although he also signed for Arsenal in June 1980, he left two months later for Crystal Palace without playing a competitive match.
It seems appropriate that Gallas, released by Arsenal at the end of last season, should create another landmark in his already noteworthy career, although he may not initially receive the warmest of welcomes at White Hart Lane.
Many Spurs fans loathe anything connected with their arch-rivals and still regularly curse former skipper Sol Campbell nine years after he left for Arsenal.
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was not worried about the reaction of the fans and said Gallas’ decision to join Spurs said much about the player’s character.
“It’s not like I’ve signed the Yorkshire Ripper,” he told reporters, referring to English serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. “He [Gallas] is a footballer. When he leaves here, he might go and play for West Ham, who knows?”
“He will come here with a point to prove ... if he had wanted an easy life, he would have taken some big money in Greece or somewhere. He has put himself under real pressure by coming here and you have to give the man some credit,” Redknapp said. “It’s not like he came here for a big pay day. I promise you, he came because he wanted to play and he’s taken the hardest challenge of all to come to Tottenham.”
Moves between the clubs are rare and Gallas is only the fourth player to join Spurs having been at Arsenal in the last decade after Rohan Ricketts, Jamie O’Hara and David Bentley.
No matter what the fans think, he should be a valuable addition to a Tottenham defense, which needs reinforcing.
England defender Ledley King has a long-term knee problem that restricts his appearances, while Jonathan Woodgate is battling a career-threatening injury.
“I think he [Gallas] is a great player on a free transfer,” Redknapp said. “I’ve signed a good player to keep Tottenham going forward instead of backwards.”
Gallas is a peerless reader of the game who also scores goals and there is far more in his armory than the petulant display most neutrals remember when he sat on the pitch after Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at Birmingham City in February 2008.
He later explained his actions, but was stripped of the captaincy by Arsene Wenger following an interview in which he questioned the commitment of some of his teammates.
At Chelsea, Gallas won two Premier League titles, but he failed to win any honors in his four seasons at Arsenal.
Born at Asnieres, just outside Paris, of Guadeloupe-born parents, Gallas started out at Caen playing his first game in the top flight against Racing Lens as a 19-year-old in 1996.
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