Say bonjour to a World Cup WAG

World Cup winning ponytail enthusiast Emmanuel Petit admits that he used to attend sexy parties where naughty substances were taken. Presumably, this roguish activity took place before he settled down and married French actress Agathe de La Fontaine.

The 35-year-old Parisienne beauty starred in the excellent Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) and the even-excellenter The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but let herself down with Love in Paris (the sequel to 9½ Weeks that’s so bad it doesn’t even warrant a YouTube trailer or Wikipedia page).

Former Gunner’s book shows how fancy transfers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Take heed Robinho…

Thierry Henry might be thinking it, but Emmanuel Petit has come out and said it - baling out of Arsenal to join Barcelona was the biggest mistake he ever made. This will come as excellent news of the serves-you-right variety to all those Gunners’ fans who remember the eagerness with which Petit scarpered in 2000, although it may bring a degree of gallic bafflement to the face of Patrick Vieira, whom Petit openly encouraged to join him in Spain at the time by testifying as to Barcelona’s all-round wonderfulness.

Alas, according to Petit’s new book, the Catalans treated him like just another chump, even though they weren’t apparently as clever with the cash as they traditionally like to think they are. “I was making 150,000 euros a month. So I asked Gaspart (Barcelona vice-president) for twice that. He wavered but agreed eventually.”

The freshly enriched Petit then trotted off to join the squad in Holland, where they had already begun their pre-season rituals. His joy at doubling his salary didn’t last long. “I turned up for a friendly, and when I went in to meet my team

French World Cup winner tells all in new autobiography

Despite having a haircut that would exclude most men from any kind of social interaction and a name reminiscent of soft focus grot films, Emmanuel Petit really lived it up during his time at Arsenal. In his autobiography A Fleur de Peau, published in France yesterday, the former defensive midfielder said he ‘went off the rails a bit’ after winning the World Cup:

“On my days off I discovered the parallel world of Parisian nights - private soirees, swapping clubs,” says Petit.

“They often went on in incredibly luxurious apartments whose owners I didn’t even know - but everyone recognised me.”

The unscrupulously honest Frenchman goes on to talk about a sexy rendezvous at the Sopwell House Hotel in St Albans:

“This pretty girl came regularly,” says Petit. “We had a relationship one day in the snooker room. The next morning,