By Jeremy Adams

When disputes get nasty, it’s commonly said that the only winners are lawyers. When disputes go public, the only winners are journalists.

But why would someone air their grievances in public? Recent examples involving Arsenal Football Club and a prominent U.K. politician would suggest arrogance and carelessness to be two root causes. But both have something in common – individuals taking a large helping of self indulgence and showing disdain for the team.

A good example of arrogance is William Gallas, (right) who was stripped of the Arsenal captaincy after an outburst in the media. He, bizarrely, chose to use a newspaper interview to air his despair at poor team performances in November. Gallas accused teammates of lacking fight in games the team had lost.

This was certainly a deliberate move. Gallas was in media mode and gave the press not just one quote but a stream of consciousness about the shortcomings of his teammates. Football is a very insular world and everyone – especially a 31-year old captain of a top team – knows that the first rule of the dressing room is that disputes stay inside the group. By infringing that rule, Gallas was breaking protocol.

His manager’s response was, however, telling. Rather than air his anger at Gallas, he declined to speak about the subject to the media.

When asked whether Gallas had been sacked as captain, Arsène Wenger refused to answer the question and said he would only talk of the players who were playing in that day’s match (Gallas had been dropped). Following Gallas’ act of indulgence, Wenger was forced to deal with the matter publicly without betraying team confidences.

Nick Clegg, leader of the U.K.’s Liberal Democrats, made a less deliberate error. On an airplane from London to Edinburgh he was talking to a close aide about reshuffling his senior team and made insulting references to at least one colleague. “Webb must go. He’s a problem. I can’t stand the man,” he is reported to have said about Steve Webb, climate spokesman.

Clegg did not know that a newspaper reporter was sitting behind him. No matter – the fact that he was prepared to talk candidly in a public place means that he could be overheard by someone.

Many seasoned business executives are clever enough to know that talking about sensitive issues on an airplane could leave them exposed to being overheard by a colleague or, worse, a rival.

What can the two of them learn? For Gallas it’s a simple rule of media relations to give reporters useful material but not at the expense of colleagues – to fully understand the risks and rewards of each encounter.

Clegg attempted to play down the issue claiming the quotes were not fully accurate, but he missed the point. His careless talk about people’s career prospects on a flight was not only poor judgment but showed a cavalier approach towards managing sensitive issues.

The job he first coveted and then campaigned for requires him to be in the spotlight in any public or semi-public place.