Arsenal: 4 reasons Martin Odegaard should be named captain

These will be the final 16 matches of Alexandre Lacazette’s Arsenal career. They will also mark the end of the captain’s armband being worn by the Frenchmam, and it can safely be said he is someone we can be proud to have represented this football club. Only a few will disagree.

This is a man who demonstrates unwavering devotion to the badge every time he takes to the turf. Leading the team out against Wolves, just like on every other occasion, he battled for every ball, with each action designed to benefit the team, above all else. The discussion of quality is irrelevant in this case.

Off the pitch he is well spoken and professional, while behind the scenes there is not one player who has ever had a bad word to say about him. All we ever hear about Lacazette is how caring, committed and supportive he is. In almost every way, he is the perfect captain.

He is also leaving in just a few short months.

Arsenal: 4 reasons Martin Odegaard should be named captain when Alexandre Lacazette leaves at the end of the season

There was some debate over who deserved to be awarded the armband once Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of it, but Mikel Arteta made the right choice in temporarily handing it to Lacazette for the remainder of the season.

With focus firmly on pursuing a top four finish in the Premier League this season there are more pressing matters, and him being the ring bearer until the end of his time in north London before it can be thrown into Mount Doom never to be seen again is logical. Or, perhaps more fittingly, this cursed piece of elasticated material should be destroyed where it was forged: in front of the Tilton Stand at St. Andrew’s.

Like reciting the histories of Henry VIII’s wives, the captaincy throughout the Emirates era tends to conclude either in the holder being stripped of it, leaving for another club or barely playing at all. It’s not had a great run of late.

In letting Lacazette assume the responsibility it has effectively allowed the remainder of the campaign to be a trial period for the others to stake their claim. Who wants it? Who deserves it? Who might have it?

Martin Odegaard should be awarded it. Here is why.

1. He’s Experienced

Is age a factor? As far as Arsenal are concerned, no. The greatest ever captain of this football club was handed the armband at 21 years old and one of the finest players of the Emirates era, Cesc Fabregas, was also given the responsibility at that tender age.

In the case of Cesc his experience stretched to about 200 games in red and white before he took over from William Gallas in 2008. He left not too long after.

As for Odegaard, he’s a senior citizen in comparison at 23 years old, during which time he’s experienced a great deal as a player. Being the name in world football when every club on the planet chased his signature at 15 years old to then having five consecutive seasons out on loan elsewhere, he has experienced the soaring highs of the game as well as the uncertainty of a nomadic life few players, and people, want to experience.

But he’s come through all of that, found his new home, settled in magnificently and used all that he’s learned up until this point to make the player we see today. And that player is someone deemed the right figure to represent his country. Named Norway captain just under one year ago, in a side featuring one of the best players in Europe, is nothing to be scoffed at.

He’s been around the block, played for one of the biggest clubs in the world, been forced to mature at a young age, leads his whole country, and is still only 23 years old.

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