Martin Keown believes that Ben White or Gabriel Magalhaes will be named Arsenal captain ahead of ‘crowd favourite’ Aaron Ramsdale.
It was announced today that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been removed from his role as captain after his latest disciplinary breach, having been dropped from the playing squad ahead of the weekend’s match with Southampton, and will remain on the sidelines against West Ham in midweek.
It remains to be seen whether a new captain will be named in the mean time, but former Arsenal defender Keown believes one of our two centre-backs will get the job, despite Aaron Ramsdale’s impressive showings this term.
“I think it is going to be Ben White or Gabriel being the captain,” Keown told BBC Sport(via Football365).
“I can’t see him going to [Granit] Xhaka although he goes straight back into that team and stays there. The one I’m looking at as a leader is Aaron Ramsdale, he is looking like a crowd favourite but he’s a goalkeeper. I’d rather have someone in the engine room.
“I’d have given it to Kieran Tierney. I’d have put him straight back in the team recently and now you would not have this dilemma but we will have see what Mikel Arteta comes up with.”
While I don’t disagree with the leadership qualities shown by Ramsdale and Gabriel, I’m not sure I’ve seen anything to suggest that White would make a good captain.
Ramsdale would likely be a good captain, but many teams prefer to have an outfield player as captain in the modern era, and I don’t disagree with that thinking at all.
How do you rate Gabriel or White as potential captains?
Patrick
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we need a captain that screams a lot. because this team needs to be screamed at every 10 minutes of a game.
IMO the most qualified players we got is Xhaka but since he has messed up the chance in the past let’s give it to KT
KT is injury prone and not a regular starter due to tavares performance
What’s Tavares performance compared to KT?
Is it the calamitous Tavares’ performance that will displace KT from the team?
The club will want to avoid the Sanchez Ramsey Ozl sagas. Having an unhappy Aubameyang on a huge salary is to be avoided at all costs. Ideally we would appoint someone with at least 3 years service. Gabriel Tierney and Partey are not yet 3 year veterens . White Ramsdale and Odegaard have only 12 games under their belt. So why not wait till the summer after a full season to give them time to show their worth.
Appointing Lacazette with a year contact extension would be a reasonable interim plan.
A positive low fall out resolution is required.
I would prefer Tierney to be our Captain, long term. In the short term, for maybe this season, Laca should be our Captain.