Arsenal: Granit Xhaka may be captain, but he’s no leader

Granit Xhaka is the officially the new Arsenal captain after filling the role all season, but even though he wears the armband he’s no leader.

It’s sad to see how much the captaincy at Arsenal is undervalued these days. When I was growing up, we had Tony Adams who had everything you wanted in a captain—passion, pride, and leadership

This was followed by Patrick Vieira who also captained with distinction. Both had one thing in common that Granit Xhaka doesn’t—they both knew what it meant to wear the badge and the captains armband at the club.

In my opinion Granit Xhaka is a poor choice, he lacks almost everything you would want in a leader. He plays with hardly any passion, half the time he looks like he doesn’t care and when do you see him giving orders on the field or step up when the Gunners are chasing a game?

Given Granit Xhaka’s recent form, he shouldn’t even be a regular starter in the team, but now that he has been given the captaincy you would think that he is now going to be one of the first names on the team sheet.

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It’s undeserved when you consider that Joe Willock, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira are all in better form and should be starting ahead of him and let’s not forget about Dani Ceballos. There was a lot of talk before the announcement about Matteo Guendouzi being a dark horse in the race for the captaincy but at 20 years old, he is clearly too young and inexperienced. Although I like how he has stepped up and commanded the midfield at certain points and he definitely has a voice on the field. You would imagine he would be earmarked as a successor for the armband in the future.

There are better leaders at the club then Granit Xhaka. As I mentioned Guendouzi, Alexandre Lacazette, Hector Bellerin and what about Rob Holding? Sure, he’s no Tony Adams, but what a popular choice he would be and he has that passion that every leader should have. Plus, giving him the armband may see him gain more of a voice. In my opinion the captain should play in the defense anyway, so they can see everything going on in front of them.

I can see why Unai Emery has appointed Granit Xhaka as captain given the fact he captains Switzerland, and the majority of the players are either too young or clearly a short-term fix, but I feel that Emery needs to take more of a risk and, in time, I can see the appointment looking more and more of a bad decision. Especially if other players in the team are stepping up more than Xhaka.

Unai Emery has always said that he wants five captains in the team and I don’t doubt that we have five players in the team who have the ability to become captain. But to wear the armband you need to show leadership and I’m afraid that is not Granit Xhaka.