Has Wenger made BIG mistake with Arsenal captain choice?

It has not been confirmed officially by Arsenal Football Club yet, but it is being reported that Arsene Wenger has finally made the choice about who to replace the departed Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta as our club captain. According to The Sun and other football sites the armband has been offered to our giant German centre back Per Mertesacker.

It is not a hugely surprising choice, to be honest, as our BFG was the vice-captain and is apparently the player who administers fines and other such things behind the scenes. He is also vastly experienced and can often be seen organising his teammates on the pitch, as well as doing things like tearing strips of Mesut Ozil when the play maker trudged off without thanking the Arsenal fans after a defeat.

But I think that Wenger may have made a mistake with his decision. The Arsenal captaincy has not exactly been a happy job in recent years, especially the last two times. Both Arteta and his predecessor Thomas Vermaelen saw their playing time virtually stop after getting the armband and if Mertesacker’s form continues to fade as he gets older I can see the same thing happening again.

Would it not be better to pick a player who was more likely to play in every game and who might have a few more years left in him? Also, the German has been guilty at times of not being a great leader on the pitch, ducking at corners and getting himself stupidly sent off against Chelsea for a lunge on Costa last season are two recent examples.

We often hear about Arsenal lacking leaders and players with the right winning mentality but we certainly have two of those in Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech and I think that Aaron Ramsey would have been a good choice as well, as would Mertesacker’s more talented defensive partner Laurent Koscielny.

Has Wenger made a BIG mistake giving it to BFG?

Bob.

Tags Alexis Cech Ramsey Sanchez

11 Comments

  1. Arsenal captains usually leave soon after becoming captain so I see this as a positive

  2. As hard as it is for us to take Wenger will not sign a quality CB and Per will be starting most games alongside Koscielny this season

  3. United have signed the mighty zlatan , and mikhitaryan. Planning to sign pogba and James Rodriguez…
    Our biggest story – merts is the captain…

  4. The Boss hasn’t made a small mistake talk-less of to had made a big one in his choice of Rhinosacker as the new Gunners captain I should think.

    I beleive the choice of Rhino’ as captain is the right one taken by the Boss. After all, he’s been the Gunners’ assistant captain for some seasons now after the departed former captain Vermaelen to Barcelona which led to the elevation of the now departed former asst captain Mikel Arteta to Captain.

    From the look of the current situation at the Gunners’ CHB, it is increasingly begins to look the Boss will not sign any finished product CHB this window. But could sign a developing CHB Robert Holding as a backup to the 3 CHBs who are already on ground at Arsenal. Therefore, it can only be natural the Boss made Rhino’ the captain of Arsenal for his experience and leadership role in the squad since he’s still at Arsenal.

  5. Was not happy reading Gazidas bs last night and this morning. The more I read the more annoyed I felt. He can’t be still giving that speech out, three seasons ago it’s we can sign the very best, now we are back to having a huge gap to make up. Seriously depressing, the prem is three weeks away and listening to this mug it sounds like the white flag been waved. Not only that but then he says the smaller clubs cannot be bullied no more. That is in the prem, Europe is a big place, he’s talking out of his ass and trying to come across more like Arsene.

    He needs to go out and get some bloody deals done. All his talk of spotting talent amounts to bs.

  6. Before the start of last season, we believed we could fight for the league. Some pundits predicted it was our year..

    Right now before the season start, we are looking like a 4th spot team at best. Thats no good but that’s the truth unless some good signing comes in soon…. Anyway at least I won’t worry myself so much in believing we will fight for the league….

    Let’s just enjoy the season because it’s gonna be interesting. Will Arsenal enjoy the season? Only time will tell.. .

  7. Ramsey would be a terrible choice for captain. He already plays like he thinks he has to do everyhting himself. Imagine how he’ll play as a captain.

  8. Wouldn’t lose sleep over “The Slow One” being named as captain, he played captain throughout last season too.

    The role of the captain in modern days has changed, gone are the days of the Tony Adams, Roy Kean, Viera, Puyol, Cafu, and the Maldini’s. These days its mainly for administrative and convenience purposes. Very few captains in modern day would even come close to those natural born leaders, maybe Lahm, Buffon, Kompany, Terry, to name a few.

    For all I care Arsene can even select Sanogo as captain, as long as we have 11 leaders on the pitch fighting for our shirt then I am fine with it.

  9. Mertesacker certainly is not a leader on the field. I believe that a captain still does have a role to fuifill with organisational skills and performance by example. This man is no Vincent Kompany or a John Terry. Making him captain surely means he will be a regular starter.Gabriel seems to have lost his self confidence, but I would still prefer him or Chambers to start. I believe that there isn’t another club in the top two divisions who would employ Mertesacker so why Arsenal?

  10. Like Vermaelen I just think it’s a stupid choice because his position in the side is not/should not be so secure. People have been harping about how Gabriel hasn’t been fully convincing and I agree, but he’s been no worse than Mert overall and given that he’s younger, there’s no reason to think he couldn’t come in and take Mert’s place at any time. The captain doesn’t have to be the best player but he has to be someone who you always want in your team and Mertesacker isn’t that – we will end up having another club captain who isn’t good enough to be playing regularly and it makes the club look a bit stupid imo. Nacho wouldn’t be my pick but he’d be much higher on the list than Mertesacker.

    Also, no captain should ever duck out of headers, especially when he’s a 6ft8″ centre back! Not exactly leading by example.

  11. Not only he,BIG,slow like snail,but also pretty dumb.
    often misplaced,scared to pass in simple situation-should of been released after first season.
    EACH YEAR HE PLAYED WE LOST 2-3 GAMES AND DREW COUPLE JUST BECAUSE OF HIM.IF NOT HIM,WE WOULD OF WON 1-2 LEAGUE TITLES

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