I want to break free

Two of France’s main defenders have been in the news today. Chelsea’s William Gallas wants to buy himself out of the last two years of his contract if the club don’t agree to sell him in the next two weeks.

Chelsea want him to stay and would give him a pay rise but it seems Gallas is prepared to stump up the £5million buyout and then negotiate with his choice of AC Milan, Barcelona or Juventus, each of whom could use him in their back fours. If he goes that will be a big hole in the Chelsea defense and Mourinho will have to spend big to get an equal replacement.

Meanwhile Jean Alain Boumsong has been telling L’Equipe how not playing regularly for Newcastle will benefit him because he’ll be fit for the World Cup. ‘I have not played 60 matches in the season, I will be ready’ he says.

I think Newcastle fans would say more games would do him some good, because in the ones he’s played he always looks like a mistake waiting to happen. Boumsong’s a funny old player who to me always looks like he’s daydreaming his way through the game and I wouldn’t be confident if he started for France.

He thinks he has a great partnership with Thuram and says ‘ I know he won’t hide and won’t let me me get into trouble’. He’s right, Thuram won’t hide but Boumsong will still get himself into trouble.