What was Kolo hoping to achieve with Arsenal outburst?

Arsenal’s William Gallas is no stranger to controversy, after his move to Arsenal from Chelsea the Stamford Bridge club claimed Gallas had threatened to score own goals if he started the season in west London and who can forget his reaction as Arsenal drew 2-2 with Birmingham in 2008?

But it seems he out did himself when he went on an explosive rant against his team mates last season.

In an attempt to curb the damage, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger soon stripped him of the club captaincy but it was too late the damage had been done. Soon after rumours began to surface that Kolo Toure wanted to leave the north London club as he could not get along with his central defensive partner, and Toure even went as far as handing in a transfer request during the January transfer window in order to engineer a move away.

Finally Toure got his wish this summer as he left the Gunners for £15m to join Man City along with Emanuel Adebayor.

Now after his summer transfer, Toure has lifted the lid on his time at Arsenal, his departure and his relationship with an un-named player, thought to be William Gallas.

In an interview on Eurosport’s ‘Euro goals one to one’ Toure claims:

“I had problems with certain players at Arsenal, especially one, whose name I will not say because I don’t want to feed the controversy.

“I didn’t have much time on the pitch last year because I think there’s a player who got the manager believing that he and I had no understanding on the field. That did surprise me hugely.”

These claims are likely to cause quite a storm as he insinuates that Wenger allowed this nameless player to influence his team selection and eventually lead to his departure from the club. They are also likely to fuel the flames between the two sides, who meet next week in the Carling Cup, as their last encounter was marred in controversy with Adebayor deliberately attempted to stamp on Robin Van Persie, Van Persie himself caught swearing at City fans and Adebayor doing little for his reputation amongst Arsenal fans, running the length of the pitch to celebrate his goal in front of them.

Toure’s claims that he does not want to feed the controversy will fall on deaf ears as he could have chosen to remain silent as he has been since the problem first arose but in the same breath he can be seen as the victim as he also claimed “My wish was to finish my career at Arsenal, but there are always banana-skins.”

Toure was well liked by Arsenal fans spending 7 years at the club where as part of ‘The Invincibles’ he won the league and also 2 FA Cups but whatever stance Arsenal fans take in the dispute between Toure and Gallas, they will not take kindly to the veiled criticism of Wenger thus he could find himself in a similar position to Adebayor when he returns to the Emirates in April.