So we have reached the end of William Gallas’ time as the captain of Arsenal Football Club. Everybody has jumped on the Frenchman’s back over his comments last week, and rightly so. It is unacceptable for the captain, the figurehead of the team, to be so public in his criticism of the players.

Having said that, at no point has anyone denied that Gallas was speaking the truth. And therein lies the problem. There IS a deep divide in the Arsenal squad. There IS a problem with one or two (or more) of the players who have a lack of respect for the senior pros. All of this is down to the manager to do something about. Unfortunately Arsene Wenger is to blame for all of this – even Gallas’ public ranting is his fault, as he was the one who made Gallas captain in the first place, and then failed to replace him.

I feel a little sorry for Gallas. Yes, he has shown some poor form this season but in the past couple of games he had played quite well (even against Villa, when Agbonlahor eventually proved too strong and quick, Gallas was Arsenal’s best player). William Gallas is certainly passionate, the problem with him is that his passion, and more particularly the way in which he displays it, means he is not a “leader of men”. I wonder if his outburst this week is the culmination of his frustration at being ignored by the manager. Had he tried to discuss these inherent squad problems with Arsene Wenger? We will probably never know, but part of me feels that Gallas felt this was the only option left open to him, but in trying to solve the problems has only opened the wound even further.

Back to Arsene Wenger. It has been obvious for some time that William Gallas was not the best man to lead the young players. This makes his decision to allow Gilberto to leave (while failing to replace Gilberto the player, never mind Gilberto the personality) even more perplexing. It also makes his decision to loan out Philippe Senderos seem foolhardy. Whatever mistakes Big Phil made in games, they were a result of his situation. When playing regularly Senderos was as good as anyone (just look back to January and February this year for evidence). More than this Philippe Senderos is an excellent communicator, respected by his colleagues and a real leader on the pitch.

The facts are that Arsene Wenger is to blame for our current plight. You cannot accept the plaudits for the glory of creating the Invincibles, if you do not accept the blame for dismantling that great team and replacing them with sub-standard players (perhaps a little harsh on the youngsters but they are not good enough… at least not yet). The start of the current crisis was not at Birmingham last season, or even when William Gallas was made skipper. The start of the current crisis was the day that Patrick Vieira was sold and the Invincibles were broken up in order to build a side around an exceptional seventeen year-old.

The time has come for Wenger to realise the problems that HE has created. He must apologise to the fans with whose money he has been so frugal. He must make a big decision over whom to make captain – would he be brave enough to bring back Senderos (if the rules allow it?). If we don’t see some major changes VERY soon then perhaps Arsene should fall on his sword.