Arsenal: Hector Bellerin was the necessary solution

Unai Emery has really made a mess of the Arsenal captaincy position. And all along, there was very a necessary solution right in front of him: Hector Bellerin.

Ever since the departure of Patrick Vieira almost 15 years ago, the Arsenal captaincy has been a poisoned chalice. A sign of the next great player to leave the club, exploited by those put into the position of leadership, the club has not had many respected, deserving captains since Vieira. And this season, it has dived into even greater depths of despair.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Unai Emery out, again

It started with Laurent Koscielny. The captain from last year refused to travel with the club on their U.S. pre-season tour as he looked to force an exit. By the end of the summer window, he would eventually get his way.

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Then it was Granit Xhaka’s turn to defile the armband. The Swiss international was eventually named captain after Koscielny’s contentious exit but proceeded to tell his own fans ‘f*ck off’ after being booed off the pitch in a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace. His official time as club captain lasted exactly a month.

In the aftermath of that horrible Sunday afternoon, in which Xhaka ‘apologised’ for his actions, he was stripped of the captaincy, the armband passing to the vice-captain in the leadership group, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. And now Aubameyang is continuing the tradition of embarrassing the club as captain.

It started with a report from David Ornstein of The Athletic that suggested some of the Arsenal players were unhappy with Aubameyang’s association with AFTV, a fan-run video reaction blog that has helped create a toxic atmosphere around the club and has been extremely critical of Xhaka and head coach Unai Emery. Aubameyang has liked posts criticising the pair in the past.

The club leaked their displeasure with Aubameyang’s behaviour. And now Aubameyang, publicly, has posted his response on his Instagram, which states:

"“I just arrived in Gabon and heard a lot of bullsh*t. I talk with who I want, whenever I want, and if somebody’s not happy with… you already know.”"

Whichever way you slice it, the whole captaincy has been mishandled. Koscielny abused it in the first place. Then Emery was hesitant to make the decision of who to be the next leader of the dressing. Then, judging by Xhaka’s reaction to the fans, he made the wrong choice, as well as conducting a semi-derisible player vote, as if ceding that he does not have his finger on the pulse of the players. And now Aubameyang is conducting in a manner that any self-aware and positive captain should not.

And what is most frustrating about this whole ordeal is that there was a very easy and necessary solution from the off. It just required Emery to make a tough and clear decision. It was quite clear that Hector Bellerin was the ideal captain candidate in the summer. I wrote this piece in early July. What was written then, still stands now. Bellerin was not necessarily the obvious candidate, especially given that he was dealing with ACL rehab at the time, but he was the right one. And he displayed all of these leadership qualities in Arsenal’s 5-5 draw with Liverpool.

Bellerin was the captain for the first time this season. He wrapped his training jacket around the mascot in the tunnel. He went over to the away fans after a heartbreaking loss on penalties. He performed consistently, communicated consistently. He acted like a genuine leader.

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That is the type of individual who should be the captain of this football club. Not one who throws his toys out the pram. Not one who tells his own supporters to ‘f*ck off’. Not one who likes critical posts and associates himself with toxic fans. It is a great shame, then, that Emery utterly mishandled the situation. Bellerin was the solution, but he was never given the opportunity to fulfil it.

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