Thomas Vermaelen believes he can draw strength from his disappointing season and claims that he has learnt a great deal from his first year as Arsenal captain.
The Belgian international has featured only sporadically since the 2-1 defeat away to White Hart Lane in March with Arsene Wenger preferring to pair Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker in the centre of defence, but despite sitting on the sidelines for much of the last two months he insists he’s ready for action should he be needed.
Speaking to the official matchday programme ahead of this evening’s match with Wigan Athletic, the 27-year-old reflected:
“It’s been a new experience for me and I’ve taken plenty from it. Of course it’s been disappointing, on a personal level, not to be playing much over the last few weeks – but again, that’s something you learn from and you make sure to take positives from it.
“That’s what I did when I missed a season through injury, and it’s what I am doing now. You can only become stronger from these different experiences.”
Rarely the most vocal of players – most of his disgust seemingly made public with an aggressive flash of his steely blue eyes – Vermaelen also admitted that he prefers to talk to teammates one-on-one.
“Regardless of whether I’ve been playing, my style of captaincy has remained the same and I make sure I am there for my team-mates,” he continued.
“I speak to players individually, but I’m not a big talker in general. The team is doing well, and I’m ready when called upon.
“I feel good, fit and confident so if the manager needs me I will be ready to take my place.”
It would be wrong, as some have been happy to do so, to completely write-off Thomas Vermaelen. There’s certainly a decent defender in there somewhere but with self-doubt creeping into his game very early in the season his mistakes became steadily more pronounced and regular.
In the end Arsene made the right decision pulling him out of the firing line but hopefully by the start of next season he’ll be better equipped to cope with the burden of the captaincy. A summer without football offers the perfect opportunity for him to get his head straight.
He’s not called the Verminator for nothing; he’ll be back…
We don’t sell any of our Center backs and buy Ashley Williams – that’s a very deep bench! Should help us in rotating all throughout next season! I just can’t help wait for the 2013-14 season. The Arsenal shall rise from the ashes like a phoenix! 🙂
Agreed, also it doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that at least one of our CB’s WILL be out for a spell next season. Quality cover will be good for a change if Vermaelen stays, and who knows, he may do a David Luis.
David Luiz is still a fucking terrible center back. He’s just a decent midfielder. I don’t see Vermaelen making that switch. Vermaelen, however will definitely be a better center back next season, no doubt in my mind. His attitude and passion are both top class.
As much as I want to believe that how many seasons have we all thought, hoped and dreamed for the same?
No one will leave this time. For all you know, there might be really surprising additions to the squad. Hope is a good thing, probably the best of things, and good things never die – remember? 🙂
Not to be disrespectful to him but I completely forgot he was captain. Arteta has done so much more of the talking as vice-captain that it almost seemed like the armbands should be the other way round.
Since when has captaincy been about talking?
Tony Adams was incredibly outspoken. Vieira talked a lot as captain. Is it just a coincidence that we have gone through this draught with quiet captains?
Yes
Well, yeah. Gallas wasn’t exactly quiet – he talked, whinged, moaned, cried and threw a strop most weeks – didn’t make him a good captain, just made him look like an idiot.
Do people think all our problems would be solved with a more shouty captain?!
Wonder who Casillas talk to in Spain NT.
A quiet captan is just one of our many problems. Gallas did a better job at being captain than vermalelen has done. Schezzer i feel could make a great capt someday. Very outspoken and most of all despises sp*rs.
The Arseblogger today *pants* is confusing the “thinking” with the “thumbing”
of the people. He truly is masochistic today… Hi Hi Hi Hi
So lets keep selling our Best Players (clearly that has nothing to do with drought) and lets buy Joey Barton and give him the arm-band. Sure We will win trophies
As long as he keeps quoting Oscar Wilde. If he moves from that then we remove the arm band.
Also, my original point was that our successful captains were the ones that dragged the team through games. How many times this season has Vermaelen actually looked like he was invigorating the team? Gallas was the same and to an extent so was Fabregas (great player but too young and inexperienced to be captain).
I’ve always felt that about the captain when he’s a defender! Give him another chance – but plan B is Arteta captain with Jack vice-captain
On the pitch Arteta has more of a communicative presence but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily the better captain. Off the pitch interactions- at training, before and after matches etc- are all just as important for the captain and since we don’t see these we have to trust that Wenger has chosen the best all-around leader in Vermaelen.
We love u Vermaelen, we do
Is it me or is he starting to look more and more like Martin Keown every day? (Well, that pic at least). I hope he plays like him next season. And obviously turns mental too.
He looks way more like angelina jolie tbh
Unfair, Angelina is the one that’s looking more like TV5 these days
Tsk Tsk, that’s not the proper way to talk about a lady….
Well she’s had the surgery too look more like TV now… Too soon?
I’m can’t seem to fully form this joke so I’ll just give some ingredients.
Angelina Jolie, Thomas Vermaelen, long balls played in deep, scoring, getting his/her head to it.
Nailed it…
Yes, too soon and a bit scummy.
Vermaelen: I’ll play my tits off next year
Weirdly he does
Jon Voight certainly gets around!
Hope we can do it like juventus did. They finished 7th place and next year they won the league. LOL.
With united propalby falling, man city is man city and wont make it next season with pellagrini (trust me). Then we have chelsea who we have to look out for.
If we can keep all of our players and add 3-4 world class players like higuain,jovetic,fabregas,isco,navas,fellaini,bender, you name them. 3-4 of these and we have every chanse to do a ”juventus” and win the league!
Are you comparing us to the same Juventus that has had its players and coaches charged with bribery as well as the whole league being investigated in general. I wouldn’t like to compare us to anyone but the arsenal of old and try and go unbeaten again and maybe win the champions league for once. However I do think 3-4 world class players is in order to replace the ones we’ve sold over the years. The Manchester clubs and Chelsea are still the ones to beat, and they will make there expensive signings as well. However they will all have… Read more »
Whatever one’s view of Vermaelen’s season may be (mine is unfavourable),
it is impossible to fault his professionalism. I truly believe he will emerge as one of the top Premier League defenders next season for having sat the second bit of this one out. Hopefully he will still be in our colours.
If he stays next year I’m sending Bould a long bit of string for the training sessions
As soon as our players have a bad patch some fans are on to them, which is understandable. Rosicky, RVP, Koscielny played were key players last season but lets not forget his crucial lung-busting goal against Newcastle last season. He is the Verminator. Let’s hope he is learning from his mistakes.
Still my favorite Arsenal player. Hope he stays.
I hope the experience of staying in one place throughout a game is one he can apply to the pitch
He better be.
I want to see the goalscoring Verminator back.
Arteta for captaincy next season and in about 2 seasons then Jack..Verminator is still very useful just not captain material yet!!
Hi, could you please change your username for commenting? As you’re not actually Goonerholic from Goonerholic.com, it would be best. Thanks.
you say? 🙂
Nobody’s fooled.
You feeling okay today arseblog? I’ve seen you in better spirits.
Pre-match nerves?
Verm for DM?
Not positionally discipline enough to sit infront of the back 4. Being a defender, naturally, his passing might not be good enough to control the tempo of the game ala Arteta,busquets. Just because he can charge upfield doesn’t mean he makes a good DM.
Worth a shot in pre-season I think.
“Just because he can charge upfield doesn’t mean he makes a good DM.” Agree, but I dont really want him charging upfield if he’s DM!
Colin was here
Was he?
I think Vermaelen (and all the boys) have learnt a lesson – hard work pays, even when you’re not playing great you could grind out the results. Next season, The Arsenal Will Be Back. 🙂
Vermaelen. His assets are his weakness. He is so determined to win the ball back that he exposes the space behind him. Partnered with Kos, sure he can escape if the player managed to get into space behind him as kos has pace. With Mert, he is not that quick across the ground. No matter what some might say, I still think if we can get him to focus primarily to defend(by defending I mean defending as a team instead of a lone charged to get the ball back) and get his confidence back(think his confidence too a huge battering… Read more »
I hope the Verminator is still here next season. Ashley Williams would be a great signing if we can manage it.I don’t think there are many available CBs out there that are available for us other than him and he ticks all the boxes and can actually play football.We’d have the best CBs in the league if he signed.
We can worry about new signings after the next two games, when we have secured a top four finish.
There’s three massive points up for grabs tonight…come on Arsenal, let’s get at them from the first whistle, high tempo, fast paced and good movement off the ball that they can’t live with!!! (And then we can laugh at the spuds fans shitting themselves)
anyone else think Verm could make for a good DM?
Complete idiot…this is the most crucial moments that Arsenal ever have encountered over the last 8 years and yet this idiot talking about next season!!! Just focus the next 2 games and fight for the champion league spot, this is priority and stop talking about future where AFC is at the verge of losing the top 4th finish..everyones is seems to be worried about the next coming games and out of sudden this joker is talking about “I’ll get stronger” pathetic and idiotic has a name LOL..
Take your piss worthy comments somewhere else, verminator is our captain end of story.
Dear Steven.
“piss-worthy” is hyphenated …
I’d have “verminator” capitalized
ends-of-stories very rarely are
… and the dickhead who you’re responding to ended his post with “LOL” That just about sums him up, poor thing.
A thumbs-up to you, and the other one for Idealist.
It’s from his programme notes ahead of tonight’s game.
I hope he stays.
I remember watching one of the Asian pre-season games; a section of the crowd, which must’ve been full of Asian women, would not stop screaming when the camera was on him. As a young, white, heterosexual male I’m not sure what my point is either.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
RVP is curled up in a dark room smoking crack because Fergie and Rooney is leaving…his family said he is distraught with Moyes coming to the club as he left one great manager to another and now he has Moyes!! Haha look what Judas life bought you 🙂
Why are people still so obsessed with RVP? He’s a champion, made the right move for his career. GET OVER IT. We have Jovetic to look forward to next season.
Because Sr. Claus, for those of us that have followed this team through thick & thin for our entire lives this club is like a family. I cant really remember being more disappointed about a player leaving than RVP. When others left it was always kind of on the cards. Also he went to united!
I don’t see him being captain next season, would really surprise me if he was (should have been Sagna or Arteta in my opinion.) I wouldn’t mind seeing Jenks get captaincy in the future, he actually cares about the club, its history, and is an England international.
“He’s not called the Verminator for nothing; he’ll be back…”
I appreciate this.
I think I’ll come back into form after obliteration of Judas Van Cunt. Next season- I’ll be back.
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Come on arsenal 3-1
TV5 is an enormous talent. We must get the best out of him otherwise he must be let go.To win big trophies we have to be ruthless.
Does anybody have the stats on how many games have been lost with the CB pairing of Mert and Kos??
Ramsey showed how to prove the critics wrong, he gets better with the games.It’s hard when you’re not playing and people doubting you but hope that Arsene can sign more decent players this summer and lift the lads about the trophy quest next season.He’s a good defender and he should stay.