MIKEL ARTETA will stamp out Arsenal’s captaincy problems after three years of chaos surrounding the Emirates leadership group.
Norwegian skipper Martin Odegaard is the favourite to inherit the armband following Alex Lacazette’s return to Lyon.
Mikel Arteta is determined to sort out Arsenal’s captaincy issues
And Arteta is determined to bring some stability to a job which has been diminished by the recent actions of Granit Xhaka, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Laurent Koscielny.
He said: “The captaincy is a topic which has been discussed a lot, especially externally, and that hasn’t helped.
“Obviously the situation has not been very consistent with a lot of behavioural problems within those groups.
“That’s something we want to resolve to bring really strong leadership within the team.
“I am very clear about how I want it. I don’t want one figurehead, I believe more in a leadership group. But in the end someone has to lead and direct others and that is really important.
“The most important thing for a captain is that when you talk, they listen to you.
“He doesn’t have to be talking all the time but he has to be able to transmit his ideas in a powerful way. If you don’t have the quality to inspire people to get behind you, you cannot be a captain.”
Arteta is unwilling to say whether he will allow the players to vote for their new skipper after previous boss Unai Emery conducted a dressing-room poll and ended up with Xhaka, Hector Bellerin, Ozil, Auameyang and Lacazette.
Previous Arsenal captain Koscielny had quit the club on the eve of the pre-season tour in 2019 and refused to even board the plane to the USA.
But Emery’s democratically elected group quickly fell apart when Xhaka was stripped of the armband after getting booed by the Emirates crowd, Ozil and Aubameyang both had a massive fall-out with Arteta and Bellerin was sent out on loan.
So it is no surprise that Arteta is leaning towards the low-maintenance Odegaard, who captained the team towards the end of last season.
He said: “What I have seen in Martin is that he thinks about the team before himself and the captain always has to do that.”
