By Yasser Aftab of ChelseafcForums

Some are cheered and some are jeered but one thing is for sure that it is always an emotional moment when one of your former player makes a return to his old hunting ground. The return of William Gallas who once used to call the No.13 shirt his own would be no different. Stamford Bridge faithful will be expectant to see his reaction and I am sure he would have one or two thoughts in his mind on how he is going to be received back by the fans who adored him once.

Gallas was undoubtedly an exceptional player and a brilliant defender. Over the course of his stay at Chelsea he played across the back four and boy he did well. He had a great footballing mind and his ability to anticipate the situations beforehand always served him well. Calm and composure on the ball, decent pace, surging runs, ability to play with both feet, good in the air and a knack of scoring crucial goals. He had it all and it should come as no surprise that he was one of our better players in the two Championship winning seasons.

But what went wrong with the player and the club that his departure was as acrimonious as it could be? Well for a start he wanted to play as a center back which he mentioned a number of times to the club. He developed a good partnership with Terry and Desailly over the course of his stay here but with the arrival of Carvalho and an unfortunate injury to Bridge he was shifted to the left back position. Jose trusted him there over Del Horno a specialist left back that shows a lot about his versatility and quality. He was never the player to keep things to himself and towards the end of 2005-06 season it looked clear that he wanted to move out. He refused to sign a new contract and said that he was interested in moving to one of the Italian heavyweights. He also mentioned about the lack of money on the table but I doubt it would be the case because Jose knew how good a player he was and wanted him badly so the club would have made the best offer possible.

Things went from bad to worse when he refused to join up on the pre-season tour of United States after the World Cup and it became clear at that time that he was not going to be a Chelsea player for much long. At the same time the Ashley Cole saga was also dragging along and in between Arsenal expressed an interest in him. The club decided that it was a good move and in a swap deal he and Ashley moved in opposite directions. The drama didn’t end there as in an official statement later the club said that he threatened to score an own goal or get himself sent-off if they forced him to play. Gallas retorted by saying that it was a petty act by Chelsea and he would explain in due course why he left Chelsea but he never did nor he took the matter to court which he said he would.

Now, that was just the backdrop but as he is now making a return to the Bridge how are we going to react seeing him playing in a different shirt. He was a great Chelsea player no doubt but now he is no longer one of us. I had a great respect for him but not now especially with all that has happened starting with his summer transfer. What really happened nobody knows for sure. We can believe the club’s version or we can develop our own theories but seeing his behavior after his departure I am tempted to believe that the club was right. He was always a moaner and he lied to the fans about moving to Italy and then he moved to crosstown rivals and started saying things about the club. His actions in the recent past like in the game against Birmingham show a lot about what his character and personality is and I feel that he is a disgrace to wear the captain’s armband. He is a good player but his actions on and off the pitch are certainly not holding him in good stead.

I would love it if we give him a fair bit of stick at the Bridge and as it is a crunch match may be a little bit of booing can have an adverse effect on the morale of the whole Arsenal team though it might very well have the opposite effect. We have to let him know that atleast some of us no longer hold him in good light for all the things he has said. It is my personal opinion and your thoughts and views are welcome.