Arsenal: Alex Iwobi’s Stance On Leadership Is So Arsene Wenger

Arsenal youngster Alex Iwobi is adamant that the team is full of leaders. But the millions that watch would beg to differ.

Last year Arsene Wenger was asked about Arsenal lacking leadership and the boss responded adamantly that the club had no such lack.

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He was pressed on the issue again and again he was firm in his reply, but it was a more telling reply:

"The team, in every position. The players lead and we try to develop that with our work. Our job is to have a leader in every position."

Focus on that last sentence for me. He wants a leader in every position. To me, that doesn’t sound like leadership. That sounds like a bunch of individuals that are just in charge of themselves. Which is the antithesis of leadership and is probably a big part of the problem.

That almost-laughable stance has been picked up by Alex Iwobi, who has recently gone on the defensive claiming that this team has a bunch of leaders. His words:

"I can assure people everyone is a leader — not just captain Laurent Koscielny. Whoever needs to talk on the pitch does so. There are a lot of leaders in the team, whether people see them or not."

Speaking of laughable stances on leadership, that right there is another.

So, in summation, we have a manager that thinks that each position is its own leader and we have a developing young star who is telling fans that the leaders are there, we just might not see them. Which in and of itself is incredibly counter-intuitive. How is everyone a leader? That’s not what leadership is! I guess the question we need to be asking is who are the leaders of all of these leaders?

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Plus, leaders shouldn’t have to be pointed out. They shouldn’t have to be covered for. Leaders stand out, they make themselves known and they sure as hell don’t sit idly by when West Brom walks all over their club.

“I guess we didn’t have the aggression like West Brom and it’s something we are still working on,” Iwobi responded to that thought.

How reassuring.

We just has Mesut Ozil moaning about being singled out now we have Iwobi moaning about how all the fans are wrong. Why can’t these guys stop with the chatter and start with the proving it on the pitch? If Ozil and Iwobi come out and answer their critics, then we can start believing what they have to say. But there has just been far too much talk and far too little action lately.

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There is a very easy way to get these points across, and it isn’t to “just trust Iwobi.” It’s to see it in action.