Odegaard No 1 pick as Arsenal look to end captaincy curse
MIKEL ArtEtA is determined to break the curse of the Arsenal captaincy after years of circus surrounding the armband. the manager has yet to name his skipper for this season, though Martin Odegaard is expected to resume the role he took up towards the end of last season.
Arteta wants both a captain and a senior group that will bring ‘really strong leadership’ to the club after a string of controversies involving previous skippers.
‘It’s been a topic that has been discussed a lot, especially externally, and that didn’t help,’ Arteta said.
Arteta’s predecessor Unai Emery named five captains in 2019 after a squad vote. they included Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who were exiled before their departures, while Granit Xhaka lost the captaincy following a furious confrontation with supporters. Of the other two, Alexandre Lacazette has already gone, while Hector Bellerin is likely to leave, too.
Even before then, the armband was considered a curse among supporters after Laurent Koscielny, robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and thierry Henry all left while in charge. Arteta considers the role to be ‘very important’ and wants his leaders to be ‘pro-active’ with ideas about ‘the way they want to live, the way they want to interact with each other and how we want to be perceived as a team’.
Arteta said a decision will be made after seeing how his new and returning players integrate during pre-season.
Odegaard captained Arsenal in their first match of this US tour against Everton and Arteta added: ‘Martin has a lot of qualities that we want as a captain. One is that he thinks about the team before himself.
‘He had a period at the start where he wasn’t playing, he was the first in training, the last to leave, asking the right questions — why he wasn’t playing, what he had to do — he was always listening, he was always helping his team-mates. His attitude was absolutely phenomenal.’
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Zinchenko has agreed a four-year contract to join Arsenal from Manchester City, in a deal worth £30million plus £2m add- ons. He is the Gunners’ fourth signing after Matt turner, Marquinhos and the Ukrainian’s former City team-mate Gabriel Jesus. City’s preferred replacement is Brighton’s Marc Cucurella, with Stuttgart’s Borna Sosa on a list of alternatives if the price tag is too high.