Up For Grabs Now

So despite what I said earlier, it seems William Gallas has not been stripped of the Arsenal captaincy, and will not play against Manchester City tomorrow. 

In terms of captaincy, good riddance to bad rubbish. His shortcomings were becoming clear long before his antics against Birmingham last year, but since then he has lurched from bad to worse. In hindsight it will no doubt be said that after his outburst yesterday his position was untenable, but as is clear from below I’m not convinced this was completely the case. 

Still, this is where we are now. Twelve games in, four defeats, all to opposition we ought to have beaten, and an away game against one of the up-and-coming and stronger sides in the league with no captain and no Fabregas. 

Immediate thoughts suggest Almunia will take the armband – Nigel Winterburn, no less, thinks so. Though he was with me earlier today in not thinking he would go, so who knows what’s going on. Almunia wouldn’t be my long-term choice, but for tomorrow he is the oldest in the squad, and also seems to be a popular figure.

He’s suspended for tomorrow, but thoughts will turn to Cesc Fabregas. My theory behind not making him captain is that he’ll have a set list of objectives to complete as an Arsenal player, and being captain might well be one of them. Hold out on it for a while, and perhaps he’ll hold on for a couple of years. We also saw with Henry how being made captain can affect personal performance. Cesc has struggled for form this season anyway, and whilst it might perk him up, it would also put even more pressure on his already burdened shoulders. On the flip side, one suspects that he’s one of the few players in the dressing room whose talent inspires universal respect, and that could be an important unifying factor (as it occasionally worked with Thierry).

That said, I’m completely aware that this theory sounds like a complete load of bollocks, and also that my alternative candidate, Gael Clichy, might struggle for respect in a dressing room with more experienced and already antagonistic heads in it. 

Of course, people will be tolling the bells. But it’s important to put things in perspective. A senior player has stepped out of line and been punished, but it has not come completely out of the blue. We are also high in the league, at an early stage of the season, with a young side bristling with talent but lacking something in belief. This kind of adversity can breed triumph. Let’s not jump to any conclusions before we’ve seen how the dust settles.

It’s not all doom and gloom, gooners. Heads up.

Somewhat calmer today about our captain. But not calmer in a ‘oh, he’s ok really, the poor chap, he was just trying his best’ kind of a way, more calmer in a steely-eyed, finger on the trigger kind of a way. Gallas is a weapon. A good footballer on occasion (in the olden days occasionally a great one), but stupid, vain and proud. No captain of Arsenal.

However, part of what makes his behaviour so unacceptable is that there’s no way it’s a good idea to get rid of him at this stage of the season. If he was going to be a complete asshole, this is the best possible time for him to do it – as Nigel Winterburn has come out and said, there’s no way Arsene can get rid of him now, with the club in turmoil. In the first place, the last thing we need is more disruption whilst we try to get the season back on course, and in the second there’s no obvious replacement. The blogs have been discussing it, and consensus seems to be that if anyone were to step up Toure would be the most obvious choice. This isn’t completely ridiculous, but I feel slightly that if Arsene were going to go down that route he’d have done it by now.

The other candidate people have started to suggest is Gael Clichy. This is an idea I’m much keener on in the long run: he loves the club, is intelligent and would give his own every much. It remains to be seen whether he’s quite spunky enough when the chips are down, and whether he can do the motivational speeches. Still, since I have my reasons for not wanting Cesc to be captain of Arsenal, he gets my vote.

But not now. Gallas is a weapon. City away is not going to be an easy ride. They have some famously good footballers, and no doubt Arsenal are exactly the sort of scalp the richest club in the world will be looking to claim as they go about their campaign of world domination.

Anyway. We must wait to see what emerges about the skipper’s situation from Arsene’s press conference. I don’t know what I want from it. I hope Arsene knows.