I’ve mixed feelings about William Gallas’ words on the current state of things with the first team. On one level, some of his criticism is a bit rich given his own performances in recent months. So a charge of hypocrisy could easily be levelled against the Arsenal captain.

However, the other bit of me is pleased to have confirmed what’s presumably the truth about the state of the team. Factions between groups of players seem fairly obvious. The Afro-Gallic contingent on one side, with the north Europeans on the other and the Iberians somewhere in the middle. And although culturally, there are always going to be differences between a disparate group of nationalities, when things have gone badly, it seems that those differences have festered into genuine dislike, accusation and counter-accusation. It’s Gallas’ job as skipper to pull everyone together and ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen. The suspicion now is that he sits on one side of the divide, undermining his authority with the whole group.

I’m pleased to learn what’s going on not because I like it, but because the truth is often suppressed by Arsenal’s own media machine. It’s significant that this interview was presumably given while Gallas was away on international duty, beyond the control of the club.

And as fans, it’s only right that we are given a view of what is genuinely going wrong at the club amongst the players. Remember the three musketeers. All for one and one for all. Seemed to happen with Henry-Vieira-Pires and last season, whilst they were fit and focussed Fabregas-Flamini-Hleb-Rosicky.

When I had a stint running a Sunday morning football team, I noted that when I had more people who got along in the team, the results were better. If the team was picked purely on the best footballers, results would not be so good. But with a bunch that just got on better together, I seemed to get an extra bit out of them, in terms of workrate and willingness to compete despite the hangover. They were in it together. It didn’t matter who was the captain at that level. More important was that the players had some kind of social bond with one another.

In a sense, Gallas as captain is the least of Wenger’s problems now. There is no captain at the club. Maybe Cesc will become one, but Gallas’ attempts to pump up the team have become a joke. What is more important than words is that the players pull together and leave behind their personal dislike of other individuals for the good of the team. How does this happen? Well, with some strong words from the manager and some new faces – from within the club and purchased in the transfer market. And Wenger has to clamp down hard on personal criticism of players from colleagues. It may even mean kicking out a couple of the worst perpetrators and selling them on. Better a happy group than an argumentative one.

Of course I expect players to argue with one another about errors on the pitch. But it should be left behind once the game’s over and the immediate post-mortem’s been taken care of. What seems to be happening is that these disagreements are forming the basis of how the players relate to one another on a daily basis. There’s a lot of immaturity at the club, and not only amongst those who are of an age where you’d expect it. There aren’t many emotionally mature men from the looks of things. People who can rise above petty arguments and see things from a different perspective.

The players are treated like pampered babies. The club employ people to take care of paying their council tax and arrange their shopping for them if so desired. Such wet-nursing doesn’t build character, but the manager wants their focus solely on their football without distraction. But that creates a void, and it is filled with trivial sh*t that ends with people doing too much bitching because they have nothing better to fill their time with. So we end up with a pool of players acting like 15 year old schoolgirls. Grow up.

As for Gallas, the man himself has had enough. He wants a move. His own lack of commitment is a result of Wenger not replacing some of the experienced pros who have left during the time Gallas has been at the club, leaving him like a Year 6 pupil in a class full of Year 2 kids. He’s feeling isolated and a bit betrayed. Yet sympathy isn’t warranted. The story about his last minute wage demands as transfer deadline loomed – indeed, the way he left Chelsea – indicate that this was all about money. The man is a mercenary. A loose cannon. William Gallas FC are the only team in town. Wenger’s decision to make him skipper looked inspired for the first few months of last season. But when choppy waters came, the captain bailed out. And that day at St Andrews told us everything that we needed to know. The change should have been made there and then.

This outburst – although one that I am content to see if only because it reveals some long-suspected truths – gives Wenger a final opportunity to do the right thing and relieve Gallas of the armband. Give it to Almunia at Eastlands and then Fabregas after that. Cesc is apparently the one who tries to get the players together to do social stuff, so he’s in the middle of the factions and is in a better position to heal rifts. Gallas can be given the opportunity to prove himself as a player over the next six weeks and then sold if he continues to show a lack of commitment to the club paying his wages.

In a sense, his outburst might just provide a final opportunity to turn things around and salvage the season. But to do this, Arsene Wenger has to show the iron fist in the velvet glove and make some serious changes. He’s capable of doing it, so let’s see it before Arsenal lose whatever semblance of self-respect remains.