Since Mikel Arteta joined from Everton he has been an integral part of the Arsenal side, making 136 appearances already, and was given the role of club captain in the summer following the departure of Thomas Vermaelen.
I’m sure that when Arsène Wenger told or asked him, Mikel had no hesitation in accepting that huge privilege and honour like any other player would have in his position. For Arsenal are one of the world’s greatest clubs with a massive fan base and a history most clubs can only dream of.
So why do I question whether the role of our club captain is in fact a curse? I mean, the club have had some iconic figures as captain throughout history haven’t they? Percy Sands, Alex James, Eddie Hapgood, Joe Mercer, Frank McLintock, Alan Ball, Pat Rice, David O’Leary, Kenny Sansom, Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry have all worn the armband with distinction.
But I decided to write this piece when Arsène Wenger announced earlier in the month that Arteta may be out for a further three months with injury after having surgery on an ankle problem. Which means since being given the armband on a formal basis, he has played in just 12 games and having a torrid time with injury. Yes he’s had his injuries before, but not so many as to restrict him to just a dozen games over half a season.
In fact, since Patrick Vieira bowed out by scoring the winning penalty in that epic 2005 FA Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium, we have had no fewer than six club captains. That’s six club captains in almost ten years. We have been getting a new captain more than once every two years. For any club that is worrying, but for a massive club like ours it is unforgivable.
I know we’ve had ‘special circumstances’ and everything with the stadium move but I just thought that it coincides with a common criticism of ours which is lack of leadership. In turn, it may have contributed to why we couldn’t win a trophy for nine years and are still looking to add a 14th league title to our trophy room – more than ten years since the 13th.
See below at who we’ve had as captain and why they vacated the position:
2005-2007 = Thierry Henry – the King was sold to Barcelona for £16 million. He was getting to a point where we’d had seven great years of service from him but the time was right for everyone I think.
2007-2008 = William Gallas – had been at the club for only a year when appointed captain. An on-pitch meltdown at Birmingham City followed that, along with smoking at a nightclub and publicly attacking his team-mates. He wasn’t an Arsenal man at all really having played at Chelsea and going on to skipper Tottenham.
2008-2011 = Cesc Fàbregas – he joined the club in 2003 as a teenager and was one of the greatest players to ever play for the club. He was not a vocal or physical player which meant he wasn’t really captain material. He did command respect, though, for the way he played. It is alleged he was given the captaincy to try to keep Barcelona at bay. That should never have been the case. Players like Tony Adams got it through hard work and suitability, not to try and keep them at the club. Arsene should not have been swayed like that and Cesc ended up forcing through a move anyway. He now plays for Chelsea which says it all really.
2011-2012 = Robin Van Persie – again he had been a long servant at the club and seemed like a very good choice to take over the mantle. However, the club had left him in a situation where he only had two years left on his contract at the time he was given the captaincy and we ended up selling him after he refused to sign a new one. We sold him to Manchester United.
2012-2014 = Thomas Vermaelen – this was a disaster. Being given the captaincy seemed to completely destroy his confidence, ability and body too. Nice going Arsène! Before that he had set the club alight with his combative performances and goals tally. He still hasn’t recovered despite getting a very fortuitous move to Barcelona.
2014 – present = Mikel Arteta – he has again been crippled by injury since getting the Arsenal captaincy. He’s an ageing player whose pace has been questioned regularly over the last couple of years. He seems to have lost his place to Coquelin and/or a new signing even when he does come back from injury. There’s not long left on his contract either.
So another one bites the dust – or so it seems! And do I really think the captaincy of our club is a curse? No, of course it’s not. I’m not superstitious for starters and secondly it would be a dream role for millions of people around the world.
But it is amazing how big a failures these last 6 captains have been. The rhyme about King Henry VIII’s wives springs to mind: “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced. beheaded, survived.” For us it’s: “Sold, dismissed as unwanted, sold, sold, sold, old”.
Arsène has to take responsibility for that. I think, as fans, we really want an iconic leader. Someone we can be proud to say is our captain and will be for a long time to come. The last few decisions in that respect have been poor. It begs the question: has Arsène lost the touch to pick a skipper, or have we just not had the personnel for him to pick wisely?
Whatever the answer is, like I said before we have had six captains since Vieira left. In that time Chelsea, Liverpool and Real Madrid have had no new captains while Barcelona have had just one change. We are Arsenal Football Club and that’s not good enough.
