Joe Cole says Arsenal’s struggle to find the right captain is because of a cultural problem at the club.
The Gunners need a new man to wear the armband permanently after stripping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of it recently.
The Gabon star only replaced Granit Xhaka as the club’s captain during the 2019/2020 season.
Fans had expected him to do better than his predecessor, but his lack of discipline has seen him lose the position.
Arsenal needs to take its time and pick the right man this time, but it is not an easy task because most of the current players at the club are new.
Former Chelsea man, Cole, was asked what he thought the problem was, and he replied via The Daily Mail:
‘It’s a cultural issue.
‘I used to go to Highbury and there would be a fear-factor with great leaders on the pitch but that slowly has been eroded. It was because of lack of leadership on that pitch.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
When Mikel Arteta came to the club, he constantly preached the need to change the culture at the Emirates.
We can see he is hard at work trying to make that happen. His decision to strip Aubameyang of the club’s captaincy shows no one will be spared if they cannot meet the disciplinary demands.
Hopefully, his treatment of the former Borussia Dortmund striker would serve as a lesson to others within the squad.
Nowadays it hardly matters, Ozil has shown the world footballers how to misbehave (hop,skip,limp,crawl, do some yoga moves on the pitch), get banned yet collect the full salary. PEA IMO will care a damn as long as he gets paid without a dime being deducted. Going to a tatoo palor before a crunch EPL match speaks of the rotten attitude these so called super stars have beliving they are better than Ibra or Messi or CR.AFC needs to go back to the basics, scout lesser known names and compensate then adequately rather than spend big on players who are nbot commited to our cause of winning big. Good that Wenger and Raul are gone, Mikel has shown the way forward with hios wise spending. It is a shame to have Auba & Xhaka in the list of great captains like TA, PV and Mikel Arteta.
Not a cultural issue! It’s a “Coach picks best player instead of player with leadership qualities” issue
OT: If Spurs win their 3 games in hand they are only 3 points behind Chelsea….terrifying!
being a captain does not mean you have to score in every game… but you have to act like a coach on the pitch… fight for your players.. energize them.. Auba lacks all this..
to me Xhaka is still the best in position to be captain than anyone… hate or like
You have a point. Wenger started this nansense of giving good players captain handbands. Cesc, Henry are great players not captain materials!!!! Captains need to be vocal and charismatic attributes. Xhaka and Gabriel remains the best choice.
@Simon- Good point
In addition Wenger also gave out the armband to those he felt might want to leave, so they could stay..
Xhaka and Partey should be obvious candidates due to their experience, but they are both too inconsistent, and I don’t know how much of a vocal leader Partey is, seeing him so far.. Especially the fact that officiating has been very poor against us over the years and it’s intensifying recently… The last thing we need now is a dormant captain
Our back five is the most improved, our next captain has to come from the back, plus personally captain/leading from the back is always prefarable
Gabriel, Tierney, White or Ramsdale should do