Team full of Captains

Captain among captains

This season Arsenal or rather Arsene Wenger boasts SIX, you read it correct, international team captains at their disposal. Though the club captain is Robin van Persie who doesn’t wear the armband for Netherlands. The captains are:

Name – Country – FIFA Ranking
Andrei Arshavin – Russia – 13
Yossi Benayoun – Israel – 32
Chu-Young Park – South Korea – 33
Thomas Vermaelen – Belgium – 37
Tomas Rosicky – Czech Republic – 42
Aaron Ramsey – Wales – 117

Last time when an EPL team boasted so many international captains, they ended the season empty handed. That was the fate of Chelsea in 2007/08 season when they were runner-up in EPL, League(Carling) Cup and Champions League. They bragged captains such as Terry(England), Ballack(Germany), Drogba(Ivory Coast), Cech(stand in captain for Rosicky that season), Shevchenko(Ukraine) and Pizzaro(Chile). Yes Chelsea did have Pizzaro for one season.

Last few seasons Arsene was criticised for not having enough leaders in the team to rally them after a poor run of matches. Even with six international captains Arsenal still lacks a “home grown” captain such as Terry(Chelsea), Gerrard(Liverpool), G.Neville(Man Utd), Ledley King(Tottenham), Casillas(Real Madrid) or Puyol(Barca). Wilshere can be the future captain but shouldn’t be handed the reins as soon as Fabregas was given.

With enough experience in the team Wenger will have ran out of excuses if he fails to deliver this season. Though the captains don’t come from better ranking national teams their leadership should atleast muster up the team to give their all in this dim season for Arsenal where they could miss out on Champions League spot next season.