In not very surprising news, Laurent Koscielny has been made the club captain for the upcoming season.
The French international is one of most senior players and having been vice-captain to Per Mertesacker for last couple of seasons, it’s a move which makes sense.
The 32 year old skippered the side for the majority of our games in the absence of the BFG whose playing time was minimal, and although he himself is currently out of action until December he will carry out the role and duties as he works his way back to fitness.
Speaking about the captaincy, Emery said of Koscielny, “He is injured, but he is captain of this group.”
The new boss had spoken previously spoken of having five captains, and he outlined who else would be in that category.
“I told the players, it is Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka,” he said.
“In my career I have always wanted leaders in the team, representation for all the players.
“I also think they are in the team more. Leaders who will show this capacity during the season.
“So these five players are in this possibility to be the captains.”
I was genuinely hoping it’d be Ramsey… God choice nevertheless
*Good
Certainly not Bergkamp’s choice !
Stop this crap of calling Bergkamp God! Why associate divinity with a flawed human who is also afraid of flying!
The existence of God is real and He isn’t Bergkamp definitely!
May I humbly suggest that you channel your inner God and forgive Merteslacker for his comment.
One other thing, and you probably won’t like me for this, but you can’t really proclaim that God Definitely exists and therefore you can’t really proclaim that God Definitely isn’t Bergkamp (despite his famous fear of flying).
Peace be with you and here’s to a miracle season and an Arsenal quadruple.
Denis was only afraid of flying because it took him too close to Zeus, with whom he has had an ongoing feud since before he was born into human form.
God actually lives underground, and Satan lives in the sky. Flying is sacrilege.
Relax mate.
We are climbing, Berkamp, ladder, ladder……….
At least Bergkamp is a real divinity…
I beg to disagree ?
Whether people agree with him or not, respect people’s belief and let’s not get a debate about religion going on here. HRM clearly got offended and we’re all here for the love of Arsenal. In regards to the captain, Kos definitely should be captain and it’s a good way to split the responsibility, rather than putting it on ramsey’s head. We don’t yet have an outstanding candidate and this season hopefully someone can step up into becoming the leader of this group. I just have this sneaky feeling that the club may announce Ramsey signed a new contract before the… Read more »
Not very christian of you swearing and all! I agree there is only one true God…..thank feck I watched him play his whole career at Arsenal ?
By the look of it Ramsey isn’t arsed whether he is plays for The Arsenal or not, Kos is the best choice for me. I personally think his days at the top are numbered, but if he can get fit and actually have a midfield in front of him hopefully he can get back to where he was a few years ago. And he’s a top fella and proper gooner to boot.
Continuing our tradition of the non-playing captian…
Get well soon Kos and change this curse
If I were Unai, I would have put Auba right after Kos or Cech. The expected top scorer and best player must be part of the captains.
Unai had troubles picking who of Neymar or Cavani should take the PKs. Shouldn’t he just pick Kos and one vice captain and end of story?
Ozil is such a strange choice for captain. I’m not fond of goalkeepers being captain either. Ramsey is a good shout, but worried about contract and the distractions that come with it.
Xhaka I quite like as captain, hopefully Torreira compensates for Xhaka’s weaknesses and he can really push on. I quite enjoyed the words he had with Nelson after his goal the other day, it looked to be Xhaka telling him about his positioning.
Why so many thumbs down fir a perfectly sensible comment?
Its almost as if a bunch of people quite like the idea of Ozil being a captain.
There’s a clip by Arsenal Tactics Column on twitter where 12 seconds before the goal, Xhaka tells Nelson to hold his position high, which means when Chambers plays the line breaking pass he is in behind the midfield, running straight at the defence. When it comes off he’s saying ‘you see! look how we manipulated the space!’
There is some irony though in Xhaka lecturing people about positioning, I must say.
I’m curious as to how Ozil is a strange choice to wear the armband when the when the first choice captains aren’t playing, yet Ramsey isn’t. Neither are vocal players who bark out orders or organise players on the pitch, yet both have captained games for their country in recent. In situations where the captain doesn’t play, its often the most experienced and respected player who wears the armband, in Ozil’s case he’s easily the most experienced outfield player and internally seems to be immensely respected by all the players (Torreira picked his squad number so he could sit next… Read more »
Any coach who makes Ozil captain is utterly stupid. You need a captain propelling his team. Ozil has not even propelled himself. One commentator called him a ‘shadow dweller’. He goes missing when the going gets tough and usually wears frustrating demeanour. Even the mooting of Ozil being a captain vexes me. We fans have started this blind idolatry again; this baseless optimism. We have forgotten so soon how Arsene destroyed this club in his latter days. Maybe it would take humiliation from City in order to whip us back to our senses. I pray we don’t call for Ozil’s… Read more »
For starters, your life would be so much better if you stopped listening to commentators. That’s all I have time for today.
A captain should be willing to put their body on the line for the cause. Ozil isn’t that kind of player and is a strange choice. His body language is not particularly inspiring either.
Glad Unai sees captain potential in Xhaka. Its funny how people seem to not rate him but I think he has the qualities of a midfield general and can turn out to be our own Xabi Alonso.
Agreed. I think he was asked to play a really difficult role last season. Be a holding midfielder in a 2 man midfield with someone like Ramsey/Wilshere who doesn’t really have defensive discipline. I’m hoping the arrival of Torreira really sees Granit step up.
He does have an odd lapse here and there, but who in this squad doesn’t?
That’s what needs ironed out.
THANK YOU!! I’m pretty confident Xhaka will shine this season. It’s as Lee said, last season he was asked to do a lot of stuff that he’s not used to
knew that xhaka was captaincy material when i first read that his mom tasked him with keys of their house
@rugrat hahahaha
But doesn’t he have an older brother? Why wasn’t the older brother tasked with the keys of their house?
Masterful mind games by Mrs Xhaka there. Pulling the bigger responsibility card little brother play to push the older brother’s mentality.
Is she available for press conferences?
“I also think they are in the team more.”
Does that suggest that Cech is first choice goalie?
I read it as such, yeah.
Sorry, just saw your comment
Or the mysterious twist that he might be the Cup Keeper and playing when some of the others might be rested.
But I think that’s more fiction, and it’s because of his experience.
Xhaka is a real team leader, he deserves being part of those five more than any other person.
And I just hate it that for the last three Arsenal captains non has been a starter in our squard, Arteta, Per, now Laurent who is injured, and it looks as if he will find it hard to get back to his best putting in mind his age, yet the presence of the captain on the pitch is so imperative…
Sensible choices tbh. Long term, I think Xhaka would be a better pick than Ramsey. Ramsey fitness problems is the only negative for me. I remember he was captain of Wales at 21 or something. I hope this won’t make him not sign a new deal.
Does this mean Petr Cech is first choice keeper? An indication perhaps?
While I agree Xhaka is a very natural leader, out of the five, only Ramsey can consistently lead from the front in terms of performances. Rest four are very capable of letting the team down with their own performances (Kos and Cech more due to age now). But of course, every player is bound to have a shit game at some point so as you were.
I think he’s bottled it….. Instead of not upsetting the apple cart, he should have kicked it over and then ran over the apples in his 4×4.
Ozil isn’t a captain.
We won’t see Koscielny this year and likely won’t see much of him this season either.
Rambo and Xhaka make perfect sense.
No really problem with Cech, but it seems to indicate that Leno is will be second choice, I’m not Ospina’s biggest fan, but he wasn’t that much of a problem we needed to spend £19mill on another backup keeper.
Five captains is something new to me. Do other teams have this? Did Emery name multiple captains for his previous teams?
There’s no perfect candidate so this is a test from Emery to see who sinks and who swims
Getting the Arsenal captaincy is like getting the defence against the dark arts job at Hogwarts ?
Without any instruction manual typically or prior vetting
It seems that I am the only one who doesn’t like Xhaka as a captain. His mentality is one of the bull in a corrida. Very focused and determined, but doesn’t see the big picture. How can we trust with captaincy person that cannot learn from his mistakes?
Cannot learn from his mistakes? I think made a huge improvement in terms of not going into silly challenges from when he first arrived.
Huge improvement.
Media made a big meal out of his propensity for Red cards.
He probably only had a couple if at all at start of his tenure with us.
Contrast what Koscielny racked up in reds, penalties conceded and own goals in his first season.
Too many people are easy prey to lazy thinking imbued by the press and media set unfortunately. No offense.
It seems that I am the only one who doesn’t like Xhaka as a captain. His mentality is one of the bull in a corrida. Very focused and determined, but doesn’t see the big picture. How can we trust with captaincy person that cannot learn from his mistakes?
You need fighters. For all his flaws, Granit has improved himself toward end of season. AND he is clearly someone with appetite for the fight. Jack had this as well but he was even more hot headed and of course he could not sustain the level of fitness. Granit is an excellent choice IMO. Cech for experience at the back, as I said it is on the onus of Leno to displace him not the other way around. Ramsey has plenty to give as one of the remaining British core I suppose and again he is a senior player now.… Read more »
Great choices! I also like how he didn’t succumb to the temptation of picking Sokratis or Lichsteiner as they are one of the older heads. I still think Captaining the “new” Gallas over Gilberto was one of Wenger’s bigger mistakes.
Why would you pick someone who is so new to the rest of the squad.
That would be daft.
Minor thing, but I hope the captain wears the armband on the their left arm once the season kicks off. I’ve noticed during pre-season that our players have been wearing the armband on their right arm so as to not cover the new sleeve sponsor’s logo. No major issue with it switching sides, however I can’t say I’m happy with the reasoning being a commercial one.
So nothing really different from Wenger era. In more recent years this is like the Gold Rolex. Per received the captaincy on the sidelines and before that Arteta. I ssuppose they were on attempted Dressing Room rahrah duty. In fact I’m struggling to see where we have changed that terribly much at all, not that this is expected. Our buying is the same. Some people imagine us to have improved bc we ‘did business early’. There is some advantage to that but in truth we got it out of the way bc apart from Torreira, none of the players we… Read more »
Still ambivalent about our choices at the back against City. Greek defender and Mustafi probably the more experience pairing but lacks pace. Holding and Mavro have height but its not a big factor against City. Neither defenders are terribly quick either. The one player who had slightly more mobility and whom I thought was a touch stronger of the young hopefuls is out on loan. Not sure what the thinking was there. Sane-Mahrez-Sterling, we press high and don’t get it right, they will be at our backline very quick and will take us apart. Hopefully we don’t attempt too much… Read more »
Mustafi and Mavro are both quick.