Resident Blogger : SimonSEEZ
There is an English fascination with captaincy of teams and it seems to come from the obsession with who wears the band for their national teams. I watch neither Rugby nor Cricket but I am always familiar with whoever wears the band for those teams. There always seems to be a story surrounding them none bigger than the John Terry issue which led to Capello’s resignation. Last weekend before the Spurs humbling by Liverpool with the amount of time given to discussing Suarez wearing the captains band you would think Gerrad had been stripped of it.
First captain I knew at Arsenal was the legendary Tony Adams famously referred to as Mr. Arsenal now due his long years of dedicated service to the club. His style of leadership was there for all to see and you never had to look too far to see Adams screaming instructions and letting people know what it meant to wear an Arsenal jersey, Bergkamp highlighted this a lot in his book (Stillness and Speed).
Viera took over the band after Tony left and though he wasn’t as vociferous as Tony you could also see from his game, the way he covered every blade of grass on the pitch, never one to pull out of a tackle and first to get into a fight if he felt any Arsenal player was been bullied a trait he shared with Tony. Little wonder any time you ask these two about our recent teams you get statements like this team lacks a leader or a tough tackling player with reference always made to ‘Viera like’ kind of player.
Since this year we seem to have lost our captaincy identity due to the fact that we have a Captain who can’t get into the team, we have a Vice Captain that has between getting injured, suspended or tactical lineups isn’t really sure of starting and we have BFG who gets the band once Mikel isn’t on the pitch. How does it feel for Thomas to keep writing Captains match day notes for games he doesn’t get to play? During the Flamini sleeves gate there were some arguments as to who picks the length of the Jersey, the match day Captain or the Captain of the club. This wouldn’t even be an issue if the Captain was playing would it?
For a club that is very traditional with its values I am pretty certain within the club Captains would have some key roles they play and to be in that position when you are out of the team is hard. Vermaelen lost his place in the team due largely to his poor form, Szczesny lost his too but injury to Fabianski saw him get his place back and he sure has kept it his. TV5 has the opportunity to do same with Koscienly out of the squad due to nasty gash he picked against City, you would expect TV5 to wear the band against Chelsea, the real deal would be what would happen when Kos returns. Would he be dropped again irrespective of his performances? Should that happen wouldn’t it be easier if just drop TV5 as Captain and give the band to Per Metesacker?
Per is first choice in defence, his performances have been spectacular and you can see the passion in him when he plays. Nacho really wouldn’t want to get on his bad side again after the mouthing he got at the City game when he was out of position. Vermaelen was on the pitch when Ozil felt Per’s rage while walking off the pitch without acknowledging the away fans after the City game, he didn’t feel the need to do it or could he do it? I understand different people react to situations differently and I don’t mean to indicate that Vermaelen is weak for not ordering Ozil back but notice that Per was still wearing the arm band after the game? Didn’t he feel he should have handed it over to Vermaelen during the game, we have seen those exchanges take place right? Remember when Wilshere had his smoking incident and Wenger response to the incident was that he would have to deal with what Per was going to dish out to him as the squads tax collector and enforcer.
Point is we have a lot of people who can comfortably wear the captain’s armband which is good and shows there is no lack of leaders but we seemed to have lost that Tony Adams, Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas Captain Identity with this squad. I would say Wenger needs to give the band to Per and Arteta can continue in his Vice Captain role while Vermaelen can be freed of what is a burden and focus on getting his game back to the level we know he can operate on.
Speaking of Captains have you guys read Theo Walcott’s book ‘ Growing up fast’? , if you haven’t you really need to read what he wrote about the Dutch C**t. Guess you don’t want him back after this right?
You can get the Theo Walcott book from www.amazon.com. In other news, are you a Gooner and you living in Lagos? What would you be doing on Sunday 22nd December? Sterling Bank, one of Nigeria’s foremost banks popular for its One Customer drive is having a free Barbecue event tagged ‘Kings of BBQ’ and we all know Sterling Bank is affiliated with our darling Arsenal football club right so there is going to be loads of Arsenal branded items give-aways at the event. I would be there, would love to meet fellow Gooners there too right? Follow @sterling_banking on Twitter , they give away really cool Arsenal merchandise every week. Hopefully, I’ll meet loads of Gooners there. See details of the event in tweet, check the Sterling Bank Timeline for more details.
It’s the #KingsOfBBQ event holding at EMBER CREEK starting this SUN 22nd Dec 2013 at 3pm. Amazing barbecue, ambience and branded items.
— Sterling Bank Plc (@Sterling_Bankng) December 20, 2013
We don’t play till Monday, after playing 3 games in 8 days this 9 days break almost feels like an Interlull but we are glad our players got the rest the desired and we should beat Chelsea on Monday. There would be a preview of the game on the site on Monday.
Interact with us on the comments section on what you think about the Captaincy issue and who you would rather have wear our band or on Twitter on @canoncrested . Have a great weekend friends, Keep the Canon in your heart!
