Arsenal: Why Rob Holding wasn’t right for club captain

Arsenal’s club captains have been announced, and Rob Holding was not included. It sucks, but there is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why.

As the announcement of the Arsenal captains neared, many had hopes that Rob Holding would be named, seeing as how he captained the club against Nottingham Forest after Mesut Ozil was subbed off. But it was not to be.

With Granit Xhaka as the captain and Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Hector Bellerin and Alexandre Lacazette as the vice captains, Holding was probably left just outside of that foursome.

And for just cause. While I would love to see a long-term captain like Holding take charge of the club for the next decade, the unfortunate reality is that Holding has only played one full season with the team.

He’s been inconsistent and injured in the early going, and as he continues to develop as an individual, heaping the armband on him and asking him to account for all his teammates piles on added stress that just isn’t necessary right now.

Let him develop as an individual before you start tasking him with whipping the entire pitch into shape. Otherwise he’s got more things to worry about besides his own performance.

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Look at the five guys that were chosen. All five are established players. All five are known commodities. They’ve built themselves, developed over the years, and we know exactly what we’re going to get from them.

Holding doesn’t have that yet. And it’s not at any fault of his. He’s just young and inexperienced. He needs time to develop more. Give him another season at the club and that may change. Which is what I also want to direct your attention to.

Of those five captains named, what stands out to you? There is wiggle room going forward. Ozil’s future is as uncertain as can be and it would be incredibly likely that he leaves the club by next summer. Who takes that open spot?

Well, if Holding has a whole season under his belt, it would probably be him, wouldn’t it?

Especially seeing as how there are going to be captaincy opportunities in the EFL and FA Cups for young Holding, when he is the senior player on the pitch, and that can go a long way towards proving that he is captain material.

We just haven’t seen enough yet. That makes this an opportunity, not a punishment.