By Boris Mellor
August 4 2010
This is not written by a Johnny come lately bandwagon hopper, I have supported the club for over 50 years, and I have gone two periods when the club went 17 years and 18 years without winning the league. I am not about to throw the toys out of the pram if Arsenal go another season without winning a trophy.
I don't expect Arsenal to win anything this coming season but I will be very happy to be proven wrong. But that is not the issue I wish to consider here, for me the issue is the growing lack of integrity that is beginning to permeate the club. A lack of integrity that is, not for the first time, beginning to undermine the club.
This lack of integrity is highlighted by the method of the now famous "want away captain system", the method by which new captains are chosen. It would seem that the main quality required to become an Arsenal captain is that a player needs persuading to stay, that he is being pursued by a big club.
So we start with Vieira, he was pursued by Real Madrid; the solution was to make him Captain. Well he did stay, and each transfer window he led us through a press fiasco identical to the Fabregas one at the present, and then when he least suspected it Wenger gave him the boot. The only reason he stayed was because Real refused Galtico's wages, not loyalty to Wenger, fans, or the club. If Real had stumped up for his wage demand he would have left a season earlier, and the last trophy would have been 2004, not 2005.
Henry was an identical case, he was persuaded to stay by appointing him captain, and he was even given an enormous loyalty bonus of at least £5 million. He became insufferable, contributed to Reyes downfall and was booted out to Barca when it was clear to anyone but the wilfully blind that he was no longer up to playing in the premiership. Wenger had squeezed the lemon dry and cashed in.
Gallas was a different case, he didn't threaten to leave, he just made some criticisms of Wenger's youth policy that were too near the mark, so to shut him up Arsene made him captain. And then there was Fabregas, which is where we came in. Cesc begun to attract Barca's attention and lo and behold he was made captain mainly to keep him loyal. When Fab goes RvP will be captain and then maybe gone a year later, that's if he can stay fit.
On every occasion Wenger's choice of captain has been criticised, sometimes wrongly, and sometimes correctly, but that is not the issue here. Vieira wasn't great, but not half bad, Henry was dreadful, Gallas a disaster who unwittingly made a contribution to destabilising a title chase that for a while seemed a cert. No team has ever started so well and then failed to win the league, but that's water under the bridge.
Wenger's reply to criticisms of his appointed captains is that the job isn't that important. If that is the case then Wenger is undermined by his own verbal dexterity, for if the role is not important then why should a non important appointment keep a player at Arsenal who wants to leave? Is it an honours system like an OBE or CBE?
An OBE is a meaningless bauble to reward people who work hard without giving them reasonable wages. Not that the comparison fits our overpaid under worked players who can't be bothered to defend for 90 minutes. However, if the award of captain amounts to no more than an honours system then it is no wonder they leave anyway.
Then Fabregas got the post, and until this summer I thought he was doing a wonderful job, his response to the Ramsey leg break was a lesson to Gallas on how to react to adversity. For a brief moment I saw what looked like a real Arsenal captain, a Tony Adams, a Joe Mercer or Frank Mclintock. His role was inspirational at Stoke; he stuck it up them like he did to the idiot from Hull.
Unfortunately, I can't understand how a player who is playing ducks and drakes with his commitment to Arsenal whilst his team mates toil in the fields of pre season training can be a good captain. If there was any integrity left in the club he would be told to commit or give up the armband. You might say that is not realistic, well I don't believe that having a captain undermine pre season preparation is realistic either.
But this is no longer about individuals, it's about a method, a method that has seen every captain that Wenger has ever appointed (apart from Adams, who was already a fixture) gives up the post after a few years. Every captain, apart from Gallas, has played the "I want away, but I don't want to ask for a transfer" game right up to the start of a new season.
Henry assured us he would never leave and went a week later. Vieira pledged himself to Arsenal and Wenger booted him out a week later. Surely there is something wrong here? The method doesn't work, I understand why the method is used, but a lack of integrity always undermines the intended aim. Wenger needs to look at new ways of choosing captains, and new ways of keeping players loyal, for the reality is that his method has failed on both of the above counts.
Quote:psymon1982
Maybe Wenger doesn't hand over the captaincy in order to get players to stay at the club. I believe he gave it to Paddy because he was a leader, Henry too was a leader. The fact they were courted by other clubs is not due to them flirting. It's simply down to good players always being linked with tranfers. That's what sells papers during the months of no football.
Quote:Super Hans
Who cares?
Quote:You cannot come out and say that the only difference between Paddy and Addy were one was a good footballer.
Quote:Super Hans
There should be no captain. Arsenal should be the first team to say 'f*ck this pointless sh*t which only stirs up media campaigns'
Quote:Gooner_Mike
No captain? Tell that to Bobby Moore, Bryan Robson, Keane, Gerrard, Beckenbaeur, Dunga, Maldini...
Having no captain is the worst idea since the sandpaper thong.

It`s either that or what you`re saying is that every captain of every sporting team ever to have played has been a waste of time?
Quote:celine dion
Er chaps there's another reason why you need a captain and I am sure fans of other clubs will be having a quiet chuckle at the fact we have all forgotten it.
They are supposed to lift a trophy when we eventually win one of the f@cking things.
Quote:weedz
Cesc isn`t a poor captain. He`s leaning as he goes and is probably the best player to grace our colours since TH14. But I also think TV and Denilson have better leadership skills.
Quote:weedz posts only go to prove my point. The fact that you can have 'bad captains' makes the whole idea stupid.
Quote:Football is not like a 'battle' it is still very much a game/sport where 11 men try and outdo 11 other men, the tactics come from the manager and the players do their best.
Quote:RockstaarQuote:Football is not like a 'battle' it is still very much a game/sport where 11 men try and outdo 11 other men, the tactics come from the manager and the players do their best.
yup..nothing like a battle thomas..just has tactics, strategy, offense, defense, leaders, orders etc and the point is to beat your opponent
you absolutely need to get out more and actually participate in the game...then maybe you would understand
