Arsenal lost the ‘bickering relationship’ needed for success the day Arsene Wenger exiled the captain’s armband

Out in the cold | The forgotten captains of Arsenal
Clive Mason/Getty Images
James Benge14 October 2017

Arsene Wenger’s 21-year reign at Arsenal has always had a neat dividing point.

The Frenchman would, has and doubtless will continue to point to the 2006 move to the Emirates Stadium as the end of the all-conquering era, the moment when his side slipped back into the pack.

But whilst that unquestionably hamstrung the manager, Wenger cannot blame his failure to build a dynasty to rival Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United and the Liverpool team of the 1980s on the balance sheet.

Finances have hindered Arsenal. So have injuries. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that the fundamental difference between Wenger’s champions and his also-rans is the lack of just one man: a true captain.

In Pictures | Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal captains

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When he arrived in 1996 Wenger inherited one of English football’s great generals: Tony Adams.

A man of such importance to Arsenal that they put up a statue to him but whose leadership is, it appears, unwanted around the Emirates. At times Adams appears to be a captain in exile, still demanding more from the Gunners 15 years after he hung up the armband.

“I’d love to come back,” Adams told Standard Sport earlier this year. “Not that they would want me. There’s no way back for me at the moment.

“But I live in hope. If the club wants me and the fans want me it’s my club.”

Photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images
Jan Kruger/Getty Images

Adams is a vocal and forthright critic, and that is not always entirely helpful – as Wenger has not hesitated to point out. But examine the great leaders across sport and it becomes apparent that quarrelling is necessary to bring the best out of teams, that coach and captain must view each other as equals.

When Wenger has done that, with Adams and Patrick Vieira, Arsenal have soared to three Premier League titles. Since then, how often have the Gunners found themselves well-placed for a title push only to collapse under the pressure?

When Adams left he was succeeded by Vieira, who for three years was the beating heart of an Arsenal side that would achieve a feat without equal by going through a season undefeated.

Since then Arsenal have seen a steady debasement of the armband: from an iconic honour to a piece of fabric of such minimal import that Wenger and his players contrived to forget they needed a captain in the second half of April’s draw with Manchester City.

“I don't agree any more with people who say you need a leader,” Wenger said in 2008. “Football is so quick that you need shared leadership.

“The time when centre-backs could just talk is over because the game is too quick.”

Nine years on and his views remain unchanged.

"Arsenal have been up and down for years; they haven’t been able to put together any long stretches of success"

Sam Walker, Wall Street Journal

“We have many leaders,” he said in August. “The modern life has created maybe a bit less natural leadership because more players are better informed and have a bigger knowledge of the game so everybody contributes.”

Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie have all been named captain under Wenger, not because of the great leadership they imparted, but to keep them.

Since Van Persie left in 2012 the armband has come with a health warning, as first Thomas Vermaelen, then Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker have taken up the captaincy and suffered long-term injuries. Maybe that is misfortune, but then Wenger did name the German club captain mere days after he had suffered a major knee injury.

As such it is now 109 Premier League games since an Arsenal club captain started a match, a streak running back to November 22 2014. Wenger remains unmoved even as others at the club question why the armband is so undervalued. .Yet how many times have we seen Arsenal subside when the pressure is on and asked who has been there to throw themselves on the line, to at times introduce conflict with his team-mates and to perhaps blur the boundaries of sporting behaviour in the name of victory?

The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Walker identifies these character traits in The Captain Class, in which a study of sport’s greatest teams found one unifying factor.

From the 1986-90 New Zealand All Blacks and the all-conquering Barcelona side of 2008-13 to the Cuban women’s volleyball team of the 1990s there was a captain at the heart of the team who would propel them to glory.

It was, he contends, the difference between excellence and immortality. Teams can be successful without a great captain but a true sporting dynasty has one at its heart.

What then, to make of a manager who consistently professes his indifference to the armband?

“Arsene’s whole view of it is that it’s an English plague,” Walker says. “Arsenal are probably the best example in sports of a team that has squeezed that [captaincy] role out completely.

“But the results speak for themselves. They’ve been up and down for years; they haven’t been able to put together any long stretches of success.

“The Invincibles – look at that team! Vieira is one of these characters, it seems so apparent that they’ve had more success when they’ve had strong internal leadership. The Van Persie situation baffles me. He had no leadership track record whatsoever and Arsene decided ‘oh well, we want to try to keep him so let’s make him captain’. It backfired in every way.”

Photo: Bongarts/Getty Images
Bongarts/Getty Images

Van Persie may have enjoyed a spectacular season wearing the armband, scoring 37 times in 48 games, but Arsenal’s achievements during 2011-12 did not extend beyond the Champions League round of 16 and a customary scrabble for the top four. Sustained success requires something greater, but even in one-off matches it seems a true captain can make the difference.

Look no further than May’s FA Cup Final. Mertesacker, making his first start since that injury, was the rock at the heart of a defence that held the champions to a single goal.

Wenger deemed Arsenal’s club captain “a fantastic example for any young professional football player” with “an unbelievable attitude”. Mertesacker has not played a minute in the top flight since.

“Your captain should be your right-hand man,” Harry Redknapp wrote in the Evening Standard in April. “I’ve had captains in the past who would say to me, ‘Listen, gaffer, you’ve got one or two in there who aren’t with us. You need to sort this out.’”

Walker concurs: “Every great coach that I looked at – [Gregg] Popovich, [Vince] Lombardi, [Bill] Belichick – if you look at them they had their greatest periods of success in partnership with a captain. I don’t think Wenger sees it that way. He doesn’t see captains as a partner or a peer. But that’s what it takes. You have to have this weird, bickering relationship.”

It goes without saying that Wenger has long shied away from such conflict within his squad. That struggle is still evident with his greatest captains: to an extent Vieira but especially Adams.

The pair have endured a relationship that might generously be described as frosty for several years, something which Adams, who claims to have offered his services to Arsenal on numerous occasions, puts down in part to Wenger’s reluctance to listen to those around him, perhaps including a captain.

Adams says: “He wants his finger in every pie. He’s the head of recruitment. He’s the technical director. He’s the manager. He’s the coach. He’s the physiologist.

“They don’t have enough leaders. Teams like Chelsea have the likes of [Gary] Cahill who’ll put his foot in and get them over the line. [He needs someone like] Vincent Kompany.”

Those who remember his ‘Donkey’ sobriquet will attest that Adams was never the most naturally gifted of players. Nor did Vieira, exceptional as he was, usually make the game-winning contributions to the Invincibles.

But they had something that Arsenal have lacked for a generation. True leadership. They were equals with Wenger – empowered to question their manager’s decisions, as Adams did when his incoming manager tried to tinker with the formation in a Uefa Cup tie against Borussia Monchengladbach.

Great teams, those that enjoy sustained periods of winning, have great captains. Roy Keane. John Terry. Tony Adams. Whilst Wenger continues to treat the armband with such indifference Arsenal will surely discover that talent is not enough.

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