08/05/2015
This conversation came up during hump day (Wednesday) beers with a couple of mates as we were watching Barcelona embarrass Bayern Munich in the champions league. All met up at the Bakers at the top of town, alright pub but full of "trendy" teens. Its like a 1 Direction tribute band at very table. Excluding the local piss heads of course. Well the plan was to have something to eat but that soon went out of the window but start as you mean to go on and as the working week didn't start to well we perhaps filled our boots a bit too much on a school night.
We have 2 Wetherspoons in Basingstoke you have the pubby one at the top of town and "The Angel" which used to be a Lloyds at the bottom of town. Both are terrible but they stay open a little later than everywhere else. They also serve food until 11:30PM!! So a beer, burger and chips at the end of the night and i don't really know what i was expecting but it wasn't the absolute filth they put in front of me. Nasty ass food. So if you come to Basingstoke do not eat in the Angel. You will get the Shits the next day (which i did). But moving forward it was good evening.
An Arsenal captain used to be the brick wall in front of the Goalkeeper when Tony Adams held the armband. We then had the Catalyst in midfield who was a beast of player in Patrick Vieira. Henry then took the privilige and lead by example. Then well it all fall apart.
William Gallas took the armband from July 2007 to November 2008 and the ex Chelsea player was far from the class we needed in defence let alone someone to lead the team. Admittedly this was when Arsenal were in their "darker" years. Gallas for me was a terrible choice but looking at the squad back then, there really wasn't many candidates to choose from.
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| Gallas Protest against Birmingham |
Then up steps our best player at the time in 2008. A 21 Year old Cesc Fabregas. Call it what you like but in my eyes that move was made to make sure we keep our star player. Throw him the arm band and he may stay. A player of that age should not be leading a team out. You could be the best player on earth but experience is needed with a captain, like one of the older fella's whos been there and done that. However Cesc held the arm band until his departure in August 2011.
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| Injured.... again |
Mr Glass Ankles himself then took the ownership of the armband. Not much needed to be said here. He had a good run became a world class player and lead the team very well. Got too big for his boots, said something about a young boy inside him and won a premier league medal at Manchester united. Now you can find him not playing in the champions league and missing penalties against West Brom as they lose at home on the regular. Now lets that there.
Thomas Vermaelen then filled the captaincy and this was a step up. A Goal scoring solid centre back. Again he ended up leaving the club for Barcelona and made minimal appearances as captain as was benched during most of the season due to the partnership that was made with Mertesaker and Koscienly. It was a partnership that left the captain out of the starting 11. Something Tony Adams would have never had trouble with.
Mikel Arteta who is one of the older players at the club currently holds the arm band but with injuries keeping him off the pitch its Per Mertesaker that leads the team out on a weekly basis. Another older player who has alot of experience and in my eyes has cracked it. A purely positional player. I could out run him and im in the worst shape of my life! It does look like we will be keeping hold of Arteta as there are talks of a year extension at the club for him. I personally wouldn't know who to pick. The captain should be a character that will tear you a new one should you fuck up during a game. Something i feel only Coquelin and Flamini seem to do. Unfortunately for Flamini its normally him making mistakes.
We do need to stop the trend of losing our captain as it can only unsettle a team year in year out. Maybe Jack Wilshire will become captain one day? Will do very good for England on the whole, but give it a few years and an injury free season first.
I have not posted for any posts for a while as other things in my life had to take a front seat but now all resolved i will try and start posting again on the regular. I am now on Facebook so make sure find the Coulingknows page and give it a like.
Take care and lets laugh at Tottenham!
Coulingknows
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