The Arsenal captain 2019/20

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The Arsenal Way
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The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by The Arsenal Way »

I wonder if El Senor Emery will appoint a (permanent) leader for the captaincy Of The Arsenal for this forthcoming season.

Personally, I would like to see Rob Holding to be given the honour as first choice. Though the lad has been out since last December, he had been showing promise in his early season games, and was vocal enough during games to command respect for the honour. If he comes back from injury well, and picks up where he left off before injury, he gets my vote.
Second choice, for me, would be Sokratis, and third choice Bernd Leno.
Sokratis played (on many occasions) like a leader last season. Kinda reminded me sometimes. Committed and full on.
Leno is my third choice because he will improve on last season, where he was an outstanding player for us, and now that the Chavski fraud had left us, Leno will cement his place as our true number one keeper. His goalkeeping saves and ball at feet improved as the season progressed.

Not sure that we have many leaders in this squad, but I want to see some consistency, and not watch the armband tossed around to just the longest serving player.

Anyway, just throwing it out there as it is a slow day on the forum. :lol:

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augie
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by augie »

There is no set of circumstances where a keeper should ever be captain imo

If early rumours are to be believed (and sadly on this occasion I fear that is the case), then it looks odds on that xhaka is gonna be our new captain IF kos goes. Personally I would prefer if it was sokratis cos I believe that he leads by example, but I don't see a leader that can verbally lead and organize players on the pitch like proper captains do.
Holding wouldn't be in my top 4 or 5 if I'm honest - for starters he is yet to prove himself as a certain starter simply cos he has never had a long stretch of games as first choice. Secondly, holding strikes me as a follower not a leader - sometimes I look at him and see a nervous player, but on other occasions he seems to feed off players around him and becomes a beast.

Jock Gooner
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by Jock Gooner »

I think Sokratis is the only real option. I'm a fan of Holding and think that with an injury free season he will show that he is a very good CB but he hasn't really bedded himself into the side yet (because of injury) and I think it would be a bit too much pressure too soon for the lad. But he could well be one for the future if he continues to develop. Watching him before his injury I liked the way he was quite happy to use his size to deal with attackers whereas for far too many years far too many of our defence have proved to be complete fannies getting bullied by forwards.

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goonertux
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by goonertux »

Jesus, how far have we sunk. When you think back to true captains and leaders like McLintock, Sansom, Adams and Vieira, we are now looking at appointing from Xhaka, Sokratis or Holding! Really? FFS shows how far we have fallen.

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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by Jock Gooner »

goonertux wrote:
Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:21 pm
Jesus, how far have we sunk. When you think back to true captains and leaders like McLintock, Sansom, Adams and Vieira, we are now looking at appointing from Xhaka, Sokratis or Holding! Really? FFS shows how far we have fallen.

Indeed but that's what we get for our clueless owner letting a senile old twat just fanny aimlessly about year after year, pet project after pet project, 4th place finish after 4th place finish, tippy tappy midfielder after tippy tappy midfielder and then some more of them just in case we hadn't enough.

When was the last time we had a fucking CB no questions asked, a straight forward proper defender - Sol Campbell. Since then we've had ten years of Vermaelens and squillacis and Djourous and Mertesackers, Paulistas, Chambers and so on. I'll let you make your own minds up about where Koscielny sits in there but TOF showed year after year that either he couldn't pick a CB or wasn't prepared to divert funds away from his tippy tappy midfield buys :cussing:

I've heard some people question whether TOF would have ever had the level of success he did if he hadn't inherited that defence back in 96 but that's a dangerous path to follow because you might find out that your aunty has balls if you do :wink: :lol:

goonertone
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by goonertone »

I think Holding's got a bit about him in order to take on the captaincy but not yet. He needs the best part of next season to establish himself and stay injury free (hopefully).

As for Xhaka i would be quite happy for him to be given the captaincy as long as it's for a club "at the next level" as that fit's in with the inflated opinion he has of his own ability.

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OneBardGooner
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by OneBardGooner »

goonertux wrote:
Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:21 pm
Jesus, how far have we sunk. When you think back to true captains and leaders like McLintock, Sansom, Adams and Vieira, we are now looking at appointing from Xhaka, Sokratis or Holding! Really? FFS shows how far we have fallen.

It's called Rock Bottom mate. :cry:

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DB10GOONER
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by DB10GOONER »

I too think it is too early for Holding to be considered but also I agree with augie in that I don't think Holding is a natural leader and his performances seem too easily influenced by who he plays alongside. Looks to be more a follower and not a leader - at this stage anyway.

Even considering giving it to the utter gash that is Xhakatard is the modern equivalent of the time we gave The Arsenal Captaincy to Feo Feo for his fucking birthday ffs..... fucking shameful. :roll: :censored:

Sokratis for me. No one else even comes close for leading by example on the pitch.

Redarmy
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by Redarmy »

Granite Xhaha is Captain of the Arsenal next season

The Arsenal Way
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by The Arsenal Way »

augie wrote:
Mon Jun 24, 2019 12:55 pm
There is no set of circumstances where a keeper should ever be captain imo

If early rumours are to be believed (and sadly on this occasion I fear that is the case), then it looks odds on that xhaka is gonna be our new captain IF kos goes. Personally I would prefer if it was sokratis cos I believe that he leads by example, but I don't see a leader that can verbally lead and organize players on the pitch like proper captains do.
Holding wouldn't be in my top 4 or 5 if I'm honest - for starters he is yet to prove himself as a certain starter simply cos he has never had a long stretch of games as first choice. Secondly, holding strikes me as a follower not a leader - sometimes I look at him and see a nervous player, but on other occasions he seems to feed off players around him and becomes a beast.


Agree in principle augie about 'no set of circumstances where a keeper should ever be captain' but, if the answer is Xhaka ???????

:D

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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by Jock Gooner »

The Arsenal Way wrote:
Tue Jun 25, 2019 11:20 am
augie wrote:
Mon Jun 24, 2019 12:55 pm
There is no set of circumstances where a keeper should ever be captain imo

If early rumours are to be believed (and sadly on this occasion I fear that is the case), then it looks odds on that xhaka is gonna be our new captain IF kos goes. Personally I would prefer if it was sokratis cos I believe that he leads by example, but I don't see a leader that can verbally lead and organize players on the pitch like proper captains do.
Holding wouldn't be in my top 4 or 5 if I'm honest - for starters he is yet to prove himself as a certain starter simply cos he has never had a long stretch of games as first choice. Secondly, holding strikes me as a follower not a leader - sometimes I look at him and see a nervous player, but on other occasions he seems to feed off players around him and becomes a beast.


Agree in principle augie about 'no set of circumstances where a keeper should ever be captain' but, if the answer is Xhaka ?????
??

:D

That's where the phrase "principles go out the window" comes from :lol:

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DB10GOONER
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by DB10GOONER »

There is simply no question that has the answer "Xhaka". Unless the question is "can you name a useless cùnt?". :roll:

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DB10GOONER
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by DB10GOONER »

Fucking Ralph has lost the plot......

https://www-football-london.cdn.ampproj ... s-16478913

:oops: :lol:

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Bradywasking
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by Bradywasking »

" I thought football's greatest honour was to captain England. I was wrong. It was to captain Arsenal today."...Joe Mercer said that following Arsenal's defeat to Newcastle in the 1952 FA Cup Final...

It is a quote I never tire of reading because it reminds me of how special our club once was.

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herbert
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Re: The Arsenal captain 2019/20

Post by herbert »

Bradywasking wrote:
Tue Jun 25, 2019 5:46 pm
" I thought football's greatest honour was to captain England. I was wrong. It was to captain Arsenal today."...Joe Mercer said that following Arsenal's defeat to Newcastle in the 1952 FA Cup Final...

It is a quote I never tire of reading because it reminds me of how special our club once was.
Great quote and I have never heard it before so I googled the game and it come up with this article and why he was so proud that day,

ADDRESSING the men he was about to lead against Newcastle United in the 1952 FA Cup final, by then in his 38th year, Joe Mercer declared, "Don't forget - nobody starts favourites against Arsenal."

If stirred by their captain's call to arms, the horse players in Arsenal's line-up were not inclined to disagree with the odds that had been laid against them.

Mercer was taking out a team stricken by illness and injuries. Welsh international Ray Daniel wore a protective covering over the plaster cast that encased a broken wrist; Jimmy Logie, his right thigh strapped could barely conceal a limp; Doug Lishman, like Logie, not long out of hospital hadn't completely shaken off the effects of blood poisoning. Cliff Holton, the only fully-fit centre- forward available to Arsenal's manager, Tom Whittaker, was turning out in his first FA Cup tie.

Speaking last week from Johannesburg, his home for more than 30 years, Alex Forbes, the Scottish international who was at right-half for Arsenal said, "Things got so bad I imagined us turning up at Wembley in an ambulance. Even Arsenal fans among the gamblers I mixed with in those days were betting against us."


Arsenal's troubles began after defeating Chelsea in a replayed semi-final to set up a possible championship and Cup double 19 years before their north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur became the first club to achieve it this century.

Playing three games in four days over Easter (in those days a feature of the League programme) Arsenal were left counting their wounded. First Daniel, who broke a wrist in collision with Stan Mortensen at Blackpool on Good Friday. At Bolton, the following day, Daniel's veteran deputy, Leslie Compton, pulled a muscle. Forty-eight hours later (and the present crop of players complain of strain!) Logie was badly hurt against Newcastle at Highbury when Arsenal also lost Arthur Shaw, their third centre- half in successive matches.

A 3-1 defeat at West Bromwich with five reserves in the team left Arsenal with the task of winning 7-0 at Old Trafford to gain the League title ahead of Manchester United. Whittaker conceded in a telegram to Matt Busby - "All at Arsenal send sincere congratulations on a worthy championship success."

In an autobiography Tom Whittaker's Arsenal Story published shortly before his death in 1956, Whittaker went over the trials that quickly followed. "Up in Newcastle my rival manager and old friend, Stan Seymour, in a radio interview, was saying: `All these stories about injuries from Highbury may be just a trick by Tom Whittaker to put us off our guard.' Oh Stan, if you only knew what went on at Highbury in those desperate and disappointing weeks."

Forty-six years on, Forbes, now 73 and together with goalkeeper George Swindin and outside-left Don Roper one of three members of the 1952 team still living, recalls fear of an epidemic in the dressing-room. "When Jimmy [Logie] followed Doug Lishman into hospital we began to wonder about conditions in the treatment room, something that hadn't occurred to us before because they were supposed to be the best."

Whittaker, formerly the club's physiotherapist, ordered all equipment to be removed and sterilised. Training refuse was immediately burned. "One joke was that a sign should be painted on the dressing-room doors to show where the dead could be picked up but the seriousness of the situation didn't escape us," Forbes recalled.

Bought from Sheffield United for pounds 12,000 in 1948 after making five of 14 appearances in Scotland's colours, Forbes was both skilful and hard, his balance a reminder that he could have made a name in ice hockey. A key figure when Arsenal defeated Liverpool 2 -0 to win the FA Cup two years earlier he approached the 1952 final worrying about his great pal Logie.

It isn't the benefit of hindsight that persuades Forbes to think that Logie should not have been sent out against Newcastle. "He was a sick man, really sick. There was a hole in his leg where the poison had been drained and by rights he should have still been in hospital. I'm sure it couldn't happen today but things then were a lot different. There was only the championship and the Cup to play for and without Jimmy, who was a brilliant inside-forward, we had no chance of beating Newcastle."

One night in the sweet long ago Forbes told of Logie's disappearance from Arsenal's dressing-room at Wembley before the 1950 final. "We were out of the tunnel and almost onto the pitch when he trotted out," Forbes recalled. "When we lined up for the presentations I heard his voice. `Alex,' he shouted, `it got beat, Alex.' We'd backed a dog in the 2.30 and Jimmy had sneaked into the ambulance room to get the result. The wee man was nerveless but in 1952 I wept for him."

Arsenal's run of bad luck (hundreds of suggestions including lucky charms and potions had been received at Highbury) continued into the final. After only 18 minutes Wally Barnes was crippled when attempting to block Jackie Milburn. With Roper moving to right-back the Welshman limped on to the wing, but it was soon obvious that he could not continue, leaving Arsenal (no substitutes then) a man short for the time that remained.

It became known as one of their finest hours. Daniel carried on bravely despite a fall that again broke the partly knitted bone in his wrist. But, in truth, Arsenal were down to nine men. "By then Jimmy [Logie] was knackered," Forbes recalled. "He could hardly stand up and was sent to play on the right wing."

With just 20 minutes left, Newcastle's manager, Seymour, grew restive. Turning to Reg Davies, a young Welsh inside-forward and future international recently signed from Southend United, he said, "This isn't good enough. If it isn't settled today you'll be selected for the replay."

The words were hardly out of Seymour's mouth when Arsenal almost went ahead. "I think if Lishman's header had gone in instead of bouncing off the bar we would have pulled off the impossible," Forbes said. "As the ball went over I saw Jimmy's shoulders slump as he trudged wearily back to touchline."

When George Robledo ended Arsenal's gallant resistance with a header that went in off the inside of an upright Forbes was on the floor. "Because I already had a Cup winner's medal, losing didn't seem so bad and I was relieved that there wouldn't be extra time. Then I felt a tug at my collar. It was Joe Mercer pulling me up, shouting that we could still save the match."

When it was over, Seymour stood to shake Whittaker's hand. "Tom, ours is the cup," he said. "Yours the honour and the glory.

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