It’s strange that fans can be accepting of the game having changed and moved on in so many ways but when it comes to a captain, only an archaic character type will do.
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There isn’t any aversion, rather simply the suggestion that we could have waited a season longer before committing.
Making Odegaard the captain at 23 is a commitment for the next 5-6 seasons.
Ideally, he prospers in the role but there could also be additional possibilities
- Odegaard doesn’t cut it as a captain
- Someone else matures into a better option.
We do have a few candidates who can be the leader of the team and we should have let them grow a little bit more before making this choice.
I don’t get the “He has just come to the club” argument. Waiting a year would have got them the requisite familiarity and Odegaard was also new to the club when he was first touted to be the captain.
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We have no captain material at the club (yet) so its whatever.
So you would have preferred giving it Xhaka for a year and waiting to see how Odegaard develops?
@Leper the ironic thing is that we don’t have any of those archaic character types like Adams and Vieira in the squad anymore except Xhaka and he proved he couldn’t cut the mustard
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Absolutely. Who gives a shit about him telling fuck off to fans?
Fans are fickle cunts anyway. As long as the player is performing for the club, these fans will bend over and let the guy fuck them in the ass while chanting nazi propaganda.
We are on the verge of defending a potential rapist anyway
Very few teams do, footballers aren’t really like that generally anymore and I’m not sure a lot of footballers would respond in the same way to a captain like Adam’s now that they did at the time.
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I don’t think time matters if you’ve already been here a season or so, a captain doesn’t have to take the mantle for any set amount of time like five years. And it clearly does matter about whether a player has just signed because it doesn’t often happen that new signings are made captains of their respective clubs.
If the main candidate seems ready now then there is no need for a placeholder which I don’t believe in anyway.
Also with regard to aversion was referring to not only you but others here who aren’t buying into it as well
What?! 
Clearly everyone gave a shit, including the fucking management who demoted him lol
The captain is supposed to be a representation of the values of the club and in almost all cases the captain of a club is/has to be a fan favourite lol
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I didn’t care. I often want to tell our fans to fuck off as well 
Yeah but you have a really weird love-in for Xhaka so your opinion doesn’t count lol
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The management that didn’t know jack shit.
Stripping captaincy off Xhaka was a bad move back then and only added to our misery. It was poor management by Emery.
Arteta clearly tried giving him the armband back but Xhaka refused.
How was it a bad move? Utter rubbish
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I highly doubt any other club would have stuck by a captain that told the fans to fuck off in that manner.
Especially given where the club was at that point, fair play to Xhaka for turning it down.
I don’t understand the connection between fan favourite & captain.
They hardly interact, they hardly influence each other.
Xhaka has more influence on his teammates and even if we stuck with him, that influence would have remained just like it remained in the last 2.5 seasons under Arteta.
We needlessly further unsettled the team, pissing off one influential player we had among a bunch of dickwads.
What made the decision even worse is that we gave it to a unprofessional dick like Auba
Its a difficult one
My perfect scenario would have been to have Lacazette keep it for another season, by which time Ben White or Ramsdale or even KT may have been ready for it.
Id like a CB to have it, all our group said a while back KT is made for it. How things change!
Interesting take.
Lacazette obviously wasn’t cut out for another season at the top level, so that wasn’t going to work.
Tierney is a crock who’s never played a full season for us, so that won’t work either.
Ramsdale as much as I love him and think he’s a big character I don’t think he’s a true captain.
I guess that leaves White, who I think is the next best option after Odegaard.
If Xhaka has influence with his teammates then he has influence with his teammates.
He doesn’t need to be in charge of the coin toss or attending the press conference or visiting schools to do that.
The idea the captain somehow affects how the players perform seems to be based on pretty much nothing but theory at this point.
I don’t think a person who’s natural inclination is to try and fire up their teammates when necessary is going to just not do that because someone else has the armband.
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Xhaka wasn’t a particularly good captain. Too often he had poor, petulant decisions whtch cost the team, he flipped the bird to us fans and the team were unsuccessful. Why would he be a good choice?
Odegaard seems like the best of a bad bunch and I’m not convinced he is even the best. Xhaka, Tierney and Odegaard have been captains before so I get the pick.
Who were the others in the leadership group? Laca who has left and Bob Balding I think. Man, we lack leadership.
Best of luck to Martin in the role, really hope this works out and he has a very successful tenure as captain of this club.
Is it the right choice ? Time will tell but I’m hopeful.
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Yup.
For example, when our starting XI huddled on the field right before kickoff against Sevilla, who was shouting at everybody and getting them fired up: Xhaka not Odegaard.
And I think that’s perfectly fine. Xhaka can get guys fired up, Odegaard can talk to referees and also transmit tactical ideas to the team mid-match.
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