Thursday bits: The captaincy, Zinchenko on not playing
Morning. The new season creeps ever closer. Maybe that’s why people seem a bit on edge, so let’s get into a few Thursday bits.
Let’s start with former captain Tony Adams who, at an event in Dublin last week, spoke about the captaincy. He said that Mikel Arteta should make Declan Rice captain, and that ‘you’re not going to win the league with Martin Odegaard as captain’.
He goes on to say:
“I think Declan is my kind of captain, and what it might do it might free Odegaard up to play with a bit more freedom. I think he’s an Arsenal kind of leader. I think he is. He’s good in the dressing room, around the training camp, around the thing, you know, he’s got standards, he’s got principles. He’s a proper player and a proper captain.”
Essentially, a Rice character is Tony’s personal preference, which is fair enough. He’s entitled to that view, but I think the contention you can’t win the league because Martin Odegaard is skipper is nonsense really. Two seasons ago, we came within a point of doing exactly that. Does anyone really think the difference was that Rice wasn’t wearing a piece of cloth on his arm? Be serious.
Arsenal are a team full of leaders of different kinds. You can see the parallel between Rice and the kind of captain Adams was for Arsenal. Demonstrative, England international (mostly), London boy. I just think it’s a bit archaic to think that’s the only kind of effective leadership, and you look at players like Bukayo Saka, Gabriel, William Saliba, and others who demonstrate their leadership qualities every week. As for allowing Odegaard to play with more freedom, Martin Zubimendi is more likely to do that than making Rice captain – which, by the way, is hardly the kind of decision you make, impacting one of your most important players, on the eve of a new season with a really difficult start.
There are plenty of things Mikel Arteta needs to do in this upcoming season, lots of things to improve on from last time out, but this isn’t one of them. He’ll no doubt be asked about this in his pre-game press conference, and I don’t think it’s particularly helpful. No doubt he’ll knock the question away with a straight bat and talk about collective leadership, but it’s just another piece of external distraction that’s not really needed.
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Zinchenko has drawn some ire for adding an additional chapter to a book he released last year. In this new bit (serialised in The Athletic £), he talks about how last season was the worst of his life, because he didn’t play much, and as a footballer that’s a really tough situation to be in. He wrote:
A player who doesn’t play is nothing. It’s one thing when your body lets you down. That can happen. But going from one of the established players of the side to unused sub is much harder to deal with. The sense of rejection you feel if your manager no longer believes in you can take the stuffing out of you, even if you’re the most resilient guy on the planet.
It seems a lot of people seemed to think this was an interview, despite it being very clear it was part of his book, and took umbrage as if he was complaining about his situation rather than simply being honest about it. If you’re a footballer and you want to play, it hurts when you don’t. We’ve also seen players who have experienced the ruthlessness of Mikel Arteta before, and he appears to be one of them. Ask Aaron Ramsdale or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang how they felt when they were part of the inner-circle one day, then cast aside the next.
He was also really positive on Myles Lewis-Skelly whose emergence, along with the signing of Riccardo Calafiori, made Zinchenko’s chances even more limited. He said:
Yes, he plays in the same position as me. But I still need to acknowledge his talent, applaud him and help him, if only in a little way, to achieve his potential. I’ve heard stories of older players ganging up on youngsters to defend their territory, the sort of stuff you see in animal documentaries. I will never, ever undermine a team-mate of mine. That’s not me.
Not sure how any could take exception to that. I do think perhaps there’s an issue of timing, this new edition is being released today just before the start of the season, and while I understand why from a marketing standpoint, I suspect that’s a part of it. Personally, I think footballers should probably wait until they’re retired to do their books, but even that’s no guarantee it’ll be any good. There’s also the issue of Zinchenko being in the last year of his contract, and I’ve heard people say we should just sell him – or he should ‘just leave!’ – and bring in £15-20m.
Which is fine. But to who? Who is bidding? Right now, it doesn’t look as if there’s anyone out there. From his comments he makes it pretty clear not playing really hurts, so he’d surely be open to a move somewhere. But if there’s nobody making offers, what can he – and Arsenal for that matter – actually do? Hopefully the last couple of weeks of the window will sort the situation out for all concerned, but I don’t think he’s really said anything out of order when it comes to his situation at the club.
Finally, after some suggestion Jack Wilshere might return as the new head coach of the U21s, it seems he’s going to pursue further opportunities in the senior game having been unable to come to an agreement with Arsenal about his role. Best of luck to him, and reports suggest Max Porter will be given the nod for that position.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. A little later on we’ll have a season preview Arsecast for you, so stand by for that. In the meantime, we did an episode of our Premier League podcast ‘The 30’, which is one of our weekly offerings to our Patreon members, and that’s free to everyone now in the main podcast feed (and below).
If you want to join up and enjoy all that extra content, you can do that at patreon.com/arseblog – and for those interested in being part of our Fantasy Football league, the deadline is tomorrow, so get yer skates on. There some good prizes on offer too – with €1000 in cash to winner. Details here (for Patreon members only).
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