Arteta on Tierney captaincy – “he’s a natural leader”

There has been much discussion on JustArsenal whether Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the right man to be captain of Arsenal lately. When things have not been going our way (which has been quite a lot lately!) the Gabonese striker does not seem to be able to galvanize the players to respond, and in fact his body language isn’t very encouraging at all.

There have been a few suggestions about naming a replacement, with Hector Bellerin the one that organized the players during lockdown being highly respected. Granit Xhaka, who is the Switzerland captain, is also popular in the dressing room and is usually one of the first names on the teamsheet has been mooted, and recently people have been impressed with the youngster Kieran Tierney has also been discussed.

So it wasn’t a surprise that Sky asked Mikel Arteta whether Tierney was a candidate to become a future Arsenal captain, and he said: “I think he can be, because he has the respect and the admiration of every member of the staff and every player.

“It’s just the way he is, he does it in a natural way. He’s a really shy boy but I think he represents all of the values we want to install and that are in the DNA of this football club.

“He’s shy, he’s so humble as well. He came here and it took him a while, he had a really bad injury and he’s away from home, but he’s a natural leader.

“You see how he behaves on that pitch, and when he talks he says the right thing and it’s exactly what we’re looking for and I’m so pleased to have him in the team.

“In both phases [attacking and defensively] I think he can do really well. He can still improve, but at the moment he’s a real threat in attack and he’s been really solid defensively. It’s the type of contribution we need from our full-backs.”

Tierney is sill young, but do you think he is showing signs of captaincy material at the moment? Arteta seems impressed….