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.