Arsenal have officially the most valuable squad in world football according to Transfermarkt.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-arsenal/kader/verein/11/saison_id/2023
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Everything is looking bright
The only doubt I have got is the captaincy. As much as I like Odegaard and he is a great player, I don’t find him a good captain.
When the going gets tough he doesn’t seem to inspire and motivate enough.
I would like Arteta to look at other options for the captaincy.
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He runs the press in such a precise way and is without a doubt one of the brains on the pitch.
Who cares if he’s not yelling at his teammates? I think he’s a great choice for captain.
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How have you measured this? What evidence brings you to this conclusion?
That’s where someone like Rice helps, no?
We don’t really have just one captain so to speak. I think there’s been a focus on developing multiple leaders in the team. Whether it’s Ramsdale, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard or Jesus.
Gundogan was the captain at City but it didn’t make the likes of Walker, Dias, Stones, Rodri or KdB any less of leaders.
Ramos used to be Madrid’s captain but Madrid’s team was filled with leaders and big personalities.
It’s something you see in various great teams over the years. It isn’t just one person, it’s a group of players, it becomes the culture of the club.
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Odegaard seem to be well respected among his teammates, Gabriel and Saliba can cover for Xhaka,minus the reputation that got the latter undeserved yellows at times, Rice seems to fit the role of a leader easily too, exicting times ahead, no doubt.
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I’ve wanted this for years. Great seeing last summer and this one get the targets in so that they can have a preseason and hit the ground running from Matchday 1.
Can’t wait. As others have said, this is the most excited I’ve been to see the season start in a long while.
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I think team cohesion and just a general willingness/hunger/connection overall towards the club is enough than having one shouty fucker on the pitch.
Mikel has assembled a team of guys that have all of these things, so everyone will be pulling their weight for the best of the team.
As a fan, having a close connection to the team now as a result of that feels amazing. Better that than paying mercenaries to come and play football for you anyway.
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End of the season we collapsed, fumbled too many games we should have won. It’s not his fault only, but I expected more from a captain in those games.
Those games in that losing and draw spell his precise pressing didn’t cut it, so a bit of other type of captaining would have been lovely to see.
I think it’s all personal preference. I certainly don’t think if we had some pashun merchant captain running around shouting at everyone during our collapse it would have changed one thing.
Well we shouldn’t reduce captaincy or leadership to simply yelling. Odegaard didn’t need to yell or anything like that, he just needed to lead by example. Taking command. Unfortunately he joined in with everyone else in shitting the bed at that time.
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I agree, all our great teams under Graham and Wenger had leaders in all positions
There were no passengers, so with captains like Adams and Vieira leading by example and the rest of the team being leaders as well, is what made us successful.
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He was close to double figures in goals and assists last season for a guy that was challenged by Mikel to score ten goals. Think he led by example just fine.
You know exactly what I mean man. I even added the appropriate context in my post.
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Like Henderson you mean
Coincidentally he did win a premier league and a champions league
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I mean if your knock on him is that he was part of the team that collapsed, that’s fair but I’m not sure he had any awful games down the stretch.
I also just don’t get the criticism of him as a captain. I guess it’s all subjective. But I also don’t get why people get so invested in the captaincy and the type of personality that should be a captain.
@Forever even the unused substitutes get medals.
Having thought about it, I think it’s wrong to limit expectations per season. In sports, teams have “windows” where they’re at their competitive peak and best placed to win things. Fair to say Arsenal have entered or are about to enter that window considering the quality of the playing squad, performance in 22/23, coaching, young ages of the key players, club stability, resources and investment etc
Saying all of that, in terms of expectations (Which I think is valid to discuss this early), I expect Arsenal, by the end of the 26/27 to have the following at the very least:
1 PL title
1 Cup
1 CL Semi final App
3 CL Quarter final Apps
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TIMBER is 6 foot tall (182 cm)
We have the young star of English football (with Foden) in Saka. We have arguably the best young defender in the world in Saliba. Havertz wss the golden boy of German football. We’ve got the cryer who is a star in the Ukraine. Rice is of the profile which means he’ll probably be a future England captain.
The branding here is brilliant. Bit of a shame we probably won’t keep Balogun.