Arsenal: If these were auditions for next club captain, Granit Xhaka wins

Unai Emery went with an odd approach to the Arsenal captaincy, choosing five guys, but if this was all one big audition, then Granit Xhak wins.

I never liked the way Arsene Wenger handled the Arsenal captaincy post-Patrick Vieira. It felt more like an honorarium. “You’ve been here awhile, here, have an armband.” There was no building around a captain.

Managers have very little communication with their club once the match starts – the communication comes from the players, and having a clear captain, who understands your strategies, is invaluable. And it’s something that Wenger just never had on his club.

In came Unai Emery with five captains – Laurent Koscielny, Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka. Quite the diverse array. It made sense letting Koscielny keep it, and you can’t argue the experience of Cech. As a new manager, you want veterans like that to lean on.

But now that Emery isn’t new anymore, it’s time to really commit to a captaincy plan and not do a Wenger. We need a real captain, a long-term captain, and we need it ASAP. Honestly, if Koscielny stays and keeps it one more year, that’s fine, but his vice captain should be one, and it should be the future of the captaincy.

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That makes the selection process pretty easy, assuming this was all one big audition, which I feel like it kind of was.

Petr Cech is retiring, Aaron Ramsey is leaving, and while Ozil has come a long way since the start of the season, I still don’t think he’s that leader on the pitch that you want the captain to be.

That leaves one man – Granit Xhaka.

Always hotly contested, Xhaka embodies a lot of the traits that fans clamor for in their captain. He’s outspoken, he’s organized, he sees the game like few others can, he isn’t afraid to bark out orders and he is crazy passionate about this club. Not to mention he has been through hell and back for this club and has emerged sparkly clean at the other end, a proven presence.

Positionally, he’s exactly the kind of guy you want. Intellectually, more of the same. Vocally, you can’t do better. And he doesn’t need the armband to be a leader, he already is one.

All that remains is trusting him with more responsibility on the pitch by making it official. He’s the best captain for the club. Of that I have no doubts.