Arsenal: The Hector Bellerin captain trains picks up steam

Earlier this summer, I wrote that Hector Bellerin should be considered for the Arsenal captaincy. With the recent Laurent Koscielny debacle leading to disciplinary action, it is now a train that is picking up steam.

I am a physics graduate. Naturally, I like numbers, statistics, data, analysis and detailed evaluations that require investigations, time, logic and awareness. And football — and sport more generally — has increasingly moved towards this manner, with the wave of analytics sweeping through the sport.

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However, while I do pay plenty of attention to numbers, far more than most people who watch football, there is an undenibale intangible element to sport that makes it so captivating, so beautifully momentous and dramatic, so uncertain and so pressurised. For all of the focus on expected goals, on tactical shapes and systems, on assists per 90 minutes and pessure data charts, sometimes, character wins out.

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For Arsenal, this unquantifiable element of resolve, discipline and personality has so often been lacking. If you had to name one team that is renowned for faltering under pressure, for shirking away from the mental barrage of top-level sport, it would be Arsenal, without a hesitation to answer. There are lots of reasons for this, naturally, but one of the key shortcomings that has undermined the club for many years has been a lack of leadership to instill these personality-based characteristics.

And this week, the symptoms of that were laid starkly and embarassingly bare. Club captain Laurent Koscielny, who is the most experienced and now longest-serving player in the squad, refused to travel with the first-team squad for their pre-season tour of the United States, as the club themselves confirmed on Thursday morning. I know.

A disciplinary process is being undertaken. Koscielny wants to leave. His place in the squad is now extremely uncertain. He will almost certainly be stripped of the captaincy. His future at the club has been cast into major doubt, Koscielny angling for a return to France and Arsenal likely now keen to sell for anything they can get. It is a calamity.

There is a need, then, for someone to step up to the plate and take responsibility. Arsenal are spiralling out of control, everything is a mess, and there is a gaping hole at the very forefront of the club. They need a leader, a face, a spearhead. Thankfully, Hector Bellerin is the perfect man for the job, despite his unusual and slightly unconventional personality.

A self-aware, emotional, intelligent, loyal, young but experienced, cerebral and loving individual, Bellerin is the perfect modern-day captain. He can speak to the younger players, communicate with the coaches, handles the media beautifully, is popular among the fan base, and established his importance in the team last season.

Arsenal are in need of a new captain. I had posited that Bellerin could be the future leader of the squad earlier this summer. And now the train is picking up steam. That, given the desperate situation the club is in, is no bad thing. A leader is needed. Step forward, Hector Bellerin, because I am all aboard.