Arsenal: Just Give Alexis Sanchez The Captain’s Armband

Arsenal has had a captaincy problem for over a decade now, so why not just go for broke and give it to the sparkplug, Alexis Sanchez?

Arsenal hasn’t really taken their captaincy all that seriously since Patrick Vieira left. It’s more of an honorary title than anything. It tends to have that effect when people like Mikel Arteta are wearing the armband. Just not a whole lot of good things to say about that.

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And then it was Per Mertesacker and now Laurent Koscielny.

I think the world of Bosscielny but the simple fact of the matter is I don’t think he can be the vocal leader that a captain should be. As I wrote earlier today, he indicted his own captaincy when he called the team’s poor mind set in the consecutive losses to City and Everton.

That falls on the captain and if the team didn’t have the right mind set, it was largely his responsibility to change it. That’s what a captain does.

Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka both boast some super captaincy potential and either one would make logical sense. But this is Arsene Wenger and he will always value someone’s veteran intelligence and longevity with the club over their talent and young leadership. And that makes sense. Hard to fault him for that.

So give it to Alexis Sanchez. It’s a no-lose situation for a couple reasons.

First of all, don’t you want the captain to embody the mindset of the club? Because if you want the mindset of the team to be hard work, dedication, effort and versatility, well hey, Alexis Sanchez is the mascot of that, not only on Arsenal but in the world of football. That’s what he is.

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The only thing, obviously, that’s holding back such a decision is the question of his long term dedication to the club. You don’t want to make a guy a captain if he is going to leave. Who we talkin’ bout, Robin van Persie?

But Alexis has yet again come out and said that he is happy and loves it here in North London.

“I try to prove that I am an important player every day and game after game. I believe we have the players and the quality to win many things,” he said, via beIN Sports.

“I feel really happy and comfortable at the club.

“I want to give the fans a new title. We always get our fans’ support in the thin and the thick, which is great. We must win the Premier League or the Champions League for them.”

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Oh yeah, and he wants to be a winner and refuses to accept anything less. What more could you want in a captain? I guess you can’t just rip the armband away from Koscielny as he really hasn’t done anything wrong though. Oh well, a guy can dream.