Before he picked up a knee injury in the first Arsenal match of pre-season that forced him to have surgery and miss perhaps the whole first half of the new season, it was being reported that the German centre back Per Mertesacker was going to be given the task of replacing Mikel Arteta as club captain.
He still might, I suppose, but I would expect the manager to change his mind and give it to one of the Gunners who is actually going to be able to help on the pitch. My initial thoughts were that the armband would go to Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey or Alexis Sanchez but for some reason I forgot about Santi Cazorla, but the Spaniard was given the honour of captaining the side that beat the Mexican club Chivas De Guadalajara in the second and final game of the mini tour of America.
Arsene Wenger is clearly considering the Spaniard and I have to say it might be the perfect choice. Cazorla is one of our best players for one thing, so he is likely to feature in all or most of our matches as long as he is fit. For another thing, he is vastly experienced, while at 31-years old is also at his prime and has plenty of time left in his playing career.
The main thing going for Cazorla to be our captain, however, is that his technical and creative abilities embodies what the Gunners under Wenger are all about. He is not just all about attack either, because in the last year or so the boss has been using him in a deeper lying central midfield role and Cazorla has proved very adept there, better than Arteta to be honest.
So has Wenger found the perfect Arsenal captain in Cazorla?
Bob.
captains curse is real as the air u breath.
GIVE IT TO THEO WALCOTT!!
CHINA- WTF , IVE EMAILED U TWICE….U STILL HAVENT GOT IN TOUCH REGARDING THEO
HAS ANYONE SPOKE TO COUNTRY OF CHINA YET….THEOS AVAILABLE!!
Yeah it’s kind of strange how the Chinese buy players. I mean they buy the likes of Pelle and Cisse but what about Walcott? Surely he’s more sought after than those 2 tools!
English players are in demand only in England, and paid highly. Outside, name 3 top English players who went for a big transfer fees and made it big? :p
I have said all pre season that
Cazorla has an achilles issue
and a last season knee injury.
With his advanced years I said
he should be sold ASP.
I have also said Jack Wilshere should be sold
ASP as he is injury prone also.
If we lost both who would play 10?
Ok any one with 2 legs should be able
to play any where on a football field
and I guess Sanchez Rambo Iwobi will get their chance.
sanchez has had recent injuries too.
With Walcott and Chamberlain injury prone and Debuchy also
injury management will again impact our season.
And it’s not like we are not aware of this challenge.
It will probably mean relying on the same faithfuls as usual
Cech Bellerin Kos Monreal Ozil Sanchez Rambo and Gooza.
Thankfully we now have Xhaka Elneny and Holding looks decent.
Will that be enough?
Of the others the further they are kept from the action the better.
Davidnz, lots of good valid points. Kos is getting older and I thought we meeded to be careful not to overplay him due to injury problems. The squad starts to look thin when you factor in their injury history and considering the number of competitions we are challenging for.
Not sure why you get so many thumbs down. A pragmatist would sell Santi and Wilshire.
Santi is a risk after his knee injury and with his age (I think Wenger doesn’t even give players over 30 more than a one year contract), sell him now and you get some money back wait till next season and you get next to nothing. As good as Santi has been for us, he has been played out of position since Wenger (rightfully) rtaes Ozil higher as a nr10. Although fitting Santi in as DM (out of position) has worked nicely against lesser opponents, it has hurt us against teams capable to execute an attacking game plan against us. Play any of the top teams in Europe or PL and I would prefer Xhaka partnered with either Elneny or Coq over a DM pairing which included Santi.
Wilshire needs no explanation. With his many injuries it’s just not worth keeping him around. He had or has loads of potential, sell that potential for 30 million or more and bet on Ramsey instead. They both would like to take over from Ozil as nr 10s.
Walcott should be sold as well but probably can not be sold as a result of his high wages.
An Arsenal season is not complete unless…
1. Kos gets injured
2. Wilshere gets injured
3. Rambo gets injured
4. OX gets injured
5. Walcott gets injured
And we buy a cheap striker after missing out on a big name player
They get injured mostly because they are getting kicked I for one I am off for a couple of games cause my ankle is red and blue When you get kicked and injured you are not a player and you get sold is that really fare ??? injuries takes time to heal and if you are constrained from movement / broken bone the muscles go to sleep so when everything concerning the bone is back to full strength than you need to start on the muscle to gain the elasticity back but players being players they want action and or they are wanted now so they are rushed or rushing back but because you player is injured there for he is retarded is preposterous
Never said injured players
are retarded. But their injuries
often retard our title aspirations.
Every player gets injured some
time of course. Over a 12 year career
most players will have a couple of 3 month breaks
and at least one season where they hardly play.
But the likes of Diarby Wilshere Sanogo have
missed several whole seasons.
Last season oldies Arteta and Rosicky picked up injuries
early and barely featured for the rest of the season.
Cazorla another oldy was out a long time.
31 yr old Debuchy played only 12 times for Arsenal
and 9 times for Bordeaux these past 2 years.
Mertz Wellbeck Jack and Santi again are out.
Sanchez is forcing his recovery to be available for the ‘pool.
Kos has a fragile achilles Gabriel had tonsillitis while usual suspects
Walcott Chamberlain + Gibbs attract hamstring injuries like insects to Byrons
And the season has not started.
When we will we learn?
3 months is looked at per minimum it take more than six months for a bone to heal some very minor muscle will take 3 months a serious injury which takes 8 months and more + rehabilitation while a player is rehabilitating other injuries my form a direct result of being constrained where muscles freeze you are not playing for 8 months you cant expect the muscles to be up and running straight away players how ever want to play because of all sort of reasons one being replaced so it hampers with their full recovery hence having players regularly in the treating room but take it from me some times you are perfect you just get back bang someone heavy dose your ankle in so you are back in out off playing time I personally got very angry because my knee was ok so went back out to come back in after one game with ankle problem after a couple of weeks i will go back out I have no guarantees that some one wouldn’t go heavy on me or me injuring myself going heavy on someone else its football thats the way it is if it is not a medallion for the cabinet its a leg medallion
Too early to think about giving it to Xhaka, but by the sounds of it he could well be the future captain. Cazorla, really nice guy, but it would be again a case of Arsenal not having any real candidate for the job. This maybe highlights why we haven’t won the league in a long time. I think Wenger is slowly coming round though, very slowly. The Xhaka signing, Cech signing, along with the lead by example types in Ozil and Alexis. This CB signing is again an opportunity to add the right type of player. I even think the Vardy links shows Wenger has woken up a bit.
Just to add, my vote goes to Cech. Even though I much prefer an outfielder, preferably CB or CM.
Trevor, you make a good point about wenger “slowly coming round”. The concern I have (and many others on this site) is that it is too slow. By the time wenger gets the striker we need and possibly CB, the likes of ozil and sanchez (plus possibly others) will have refused to sign new contracts and will have been sold.
Last summer not signing an outfield player (striker?) was a big mistake. Financial results for year ending april 2016 have not been published yet. Indications are that it was a financially difficult year due to deferred payments to existing players previous clubs. Arsenal should have dipped in to cash reserves and bought a top player for a position where we are weak, ie xhaka or striker. It would have shown our top players that we were serious about winning, thus helping the new contract negotiations, and perhaps we might now be PL Champions.