The Arsenal captaincy for next season is still yet to be decided with Alexandre Lacazette having given up the responsibility after he left on a free transfer to Lyon. The Gunners have had a long history with captains and controversy.
Lacazette took the armband from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who became the third Arsenal captain after William Gallas and Granit Xhaka to have it stripped from him. Mikel Arteta needs to get the next choice right, but a potentially underplayed candidate may have emerged.
The news was announced that Eddie Nketiah had signed a new deal, whilst he is far from captain’s material at this stage, it was the response to this event which brought out the individual. Some Arsenal fans, although describing them as such is a push, decided it right to reply to the posts with abuse and over-the-top criticism of the decision.
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Whilst having an opinion shouldn’t be discouraged necessarily if that held view is one put across in a disrespectful or abusive way it has no place for someone who’d class themselves a ‘supporter.’ Arsenal legend Ian Wright replied to one response describing this very process.
He wrote in response to a commenter suggesting Nketiah was not good enough for the number 14 in the post’s replies: “What’s a number? Why don’t you say nothing if you have nothing positive to say to our players? You can never call yourself an Arsenal fan with negativity of this nature? Would you say it to Eddie’s face? If not, STFU.”
However, what was the most shocking response was to see one of the current crop of players make a public statement. Gabriel Magalhaes took to Twitter and posted, “how can you be so ungrateful! OMG.”
Whilst broad, it became clear this was in reference to Nketiah’s new deal when he liked a tweet from @mollsAFC which read: ‘Don’t be fooled by the loud haters. Plenty of us are happy with the contract extension and don’t mind the shirt number.’
Well said, Molly. And interestingly enough, this is indeed true. There was a lot of support for the contract renewal with perhaps a loud minority spouting the hatred.
Gabriel has come out on social media several times in the past after a mistake or loss to front up. He has also praised the Gunners and supporters on several occasions.
Could this public defence of Nketiah show that mentality that he has the desire to be at the forefront of the team? A player capable of tackling difficult moments and protecting his teammates.
Gabriel will have serious competition from the likes of Martin Odegaard and Kieran Tierney who football.london understands are two of the main candidates being considered. His language barriers are being overcome gradually but he is far behind that of the Norwegian who is fluent already.
Whilst he is unlikely to be granted the armband, having yet to actually wear it, he is sure to become part of a growing group of leaders in the squad. A group that Arteta will be reliant upon next season to push through another challenging campaign.
