- [On Pep Guardiola] “I just remember him grabbing my shirt while I was on the ground, and I was a little bit upset with it so I just tried to push him away from me. He dived; he had a lot of experience and I was naive…”
- “Edgar Davids – who was playing for Tottenham at the time – was clean through on goal for what could have been the winner in the first game at the new stadium, and I just couldn’t let that happen. It was a bad tackle from behind; it was totally ridiculous that I did that in a testimonial game really!”
- “Arsene [Wenger] being at Arsenal, and me knowing him from Monaco, meant there was a fantastic opportunity for me to move to England and – if I’m being honest, if this would’ve been a few years later on, I don’t think that chance would have presented itself to me, because things were moving quickly in England and the quality of the game and the financial power of the clubs was improving so much.”
Guardiola got me sent off (& my ridiculous tackle on Edgar Davids)
Gilles Grimandi exclusively spoke to Ladbrokes Fanzone about his time playing for Arsenal, and a meeting on the pitch with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola…
“I remember that incident with Pep Guardiola very well, of course. I remember we were 1-0 down when I got sent off, and we equalised with 10-men, so I clearly wasn’t so important on the pitch! I just remember him grabbing my shirt while I was on the ground, and I was a little bit upset with it so I just tried to push him away from me. He dived; he had a lot of experience and I was naive, which meant sometimes I reacted a little bit too quickly. But we had a good experience on that night in the end, and I was quite happy with how things went… with the result, not my attitude!
“I never met Guardiola again after that moment, but I’d like to think he’s forgiven me and forgotten about it. I had a similar moment with Diego Simeone one time, where we had a fight on the pitch… it’s funny because these are two of the best coaches in the world right now, and it just so happened that I had a problem with both of them in their playing careers!
“After all of these years, these are just funny memories. There’s another one during Dennis Bergkamp’s testimonial match at the Emirates. Edgar Davids – who was playing for Tottenham at the time – was clean through on goal for what could have been the winner in the first game at the new stadium, and I just couldn’t let that happen. I don’t know what went on in my mind, but I knew I had to stop him, and that meant tripping him up in front of an open-goal and giving away a penalty. It was a bad tackle from behind; it was totally ridiculous that I did that in a testimonial game really! But I just didn’t want to let him score… and then they ended up missing the penalty so it all worked out OK for us! ”
Moving to Arsenal… I got in at the right time
“Signing for Arsenal was a great moment in my career. Sometimes things just fall into place for players, and with me and Arsenal, it was very much a case of me being in the right place at the right moment. At that time, a lot of the best players in France were moving to Italy; Thierry Henry went to Juventus, Patrick Vieira went to Milan, Zinedine Zidane went to Juventus… even Dennis Bergkamp’s first move was to Italy.
“Arsene [Wenger] being at Arsenal, and me knowing him from Monaco, meant there was a fantastic opportunity for me to move to England and – if I’m being honest, if this would’ve been a few years later on, I don’t think that chance would have presented itself to me, because things were moving quickly in England and the quality of the game and the financial power of the clubs was improving so much.
“The club means so much to me. It’s everything; I don’t know if I’ve missed a game in the last 20 years. I watch every game on TV, I just enjoy watching them so much. We went through hard times, and it was really difficult to deal with that, but for me, I love this club, and I love seeing them back at the top of the table, challenging for trophies. It’s a very special place for me. ”
