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Why Arsenal need Jack Wilshere to lead them into a new era

Richard Jolly
Jack Wilshere was told he could leave Arsenal last summer. He should be made captain this summer.
Jack Wilshere was told he could leave Arsenal last summer. He should be made captain this summer.

Arsenal need a new leader. It is scarcely an original or controversial opinion. There may not be a mountain, desert or even planet that does not contain a banner bearing the message “Wenger Out”. And indeed they do require a different manager.

But the question of the succession is not confined to the dugout. Arsenal must appoint a captain and, while Wenger may linger on for the last year of his contract, this particular requirement is definitely pressing. Partly because Per Mertesacker is retiring, but partly also because there has been a leadership vacuum on the pitch all too often in recent years.

It has become a theme in recent years that there are too few natural leaders. The iconic captains of yesteryear – Roy Keane, Steven Gerrard, John Terry and co – became an endangered species. That is particular so at Arsenal: Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira stand out in part because of their eminence and excellence.

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But nostalgia for them has been exacerbated by the crisis of captaincy amid a lack of spiritual successors and the way the armband has been handed around half the team while Wenger’s supposed on-field lieutenants have been off the field.

Mertesacker and his predecessor Mikel Arteta are worthy figures; their insight and influence has been recognised in the way both have been granted coaching roles at major clubs. Yet the fact is that since Arteta began against Manchester United in 2014, Arsenal have played 132 league games. Their club captain has started with the armband in just four: in each case, it was Mertesacker this season, when he has only been an understudy. Moreover, the German’s usual deputy, Santi Cazorla, has had horrifically cruel injury problems. The luckless Spaniard has not featured for 19 months.

It has created a void. Captaining Arsenal has become a deluxe game of pass the parcel. When the music has stopped at various points this season, Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Petr Cech, Theo Walcott, David Ospina and Jack Wilshere have all found themselves wearing the armband.

If change is required, so is clarity. Arsenal need a sense of direction, as well as a focal point. They could do with a galvanising force, rather than a skipper in evident decline. It is a reason to skip to the next generation and to anoint Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey as captain and vice-captain respectively.

Per Mertesacker has joined Mikel Arteta in the ranks of Arsenal’s non-playing captains.
Per Mertesacker has joined Mikel Arteta in the ranks of Arsenal’s non-playing captains.

It would mean passing over Koscielny and Cech. The Frenchman has been a fine servant, if one who gives the impression he is happier as the quieter member of a centre-back partnership, but he will be 33 later this year. His body is starting to let him down and a central defender should figure prominently on the summer shopping list. The goalkeeper has the personality and the sense of responsibility to equip him for the honour. The problem is that his performances should put his place in doubt; Ospina may be a better bet, even if no one else is signed. Plumping for either could lead to history repeating itself and Arsenal becoming less a football team than a Ryder Cup team, with a non-playing captain.

Wilshere and Ramsey, in contrast, ought to be staples of the side. Admittedly, each is more injury prone than is ideal. Depending on the formation, there are questions where both can be accommodated.

Yet they are first-team players nearer their peak. Each has had encouraging seasons, Wilshere showing the strength of character to go from fringe figure who was told by Wenger he could leave to a regular, and Ramsey, with six goals and another six assists in the Premier League, proving productive. With Francis Coquelin gone and Cazorla surely following, they have to assume a centrality in any manager’s planning, even if it would help both if a more conventional defensive midfielder than Granit Xhaka were signed to sweep up behind them.


And, given the way Arsenal are sometimes accused of lacking spirit, they care. Wilshere’s brand of conspicuous commitment can take him into some ill-judged tackles when Arsenal are losing. At least it is evidence he is unhappy with mediocrity. As FA Cup finals illustrate, Ramsey is able to win games by force of personality; it makes him something of a throwback.

As Vincent Kompany shows, not every captain has to grow up at the club to understand it or develop an affinity with it. It does help, though. Wilshere joined at nine, Ramsey at 17. And given their uncertain futures, with the Englishman’s contract up this summer and the Welshman’s in 2019, signs of Arsenal’s commitment to them ought to give them reasons to respond in kind and sign extended deals.

There is a theory that some youthful talents at the Emirates Stadium never realise their potential because they are allowed to remain young for too young. Granting Wilshere and Ramsey seniority and responsibility should make them exceptions to the rule. It should also bring a rare sight at the Emirates Stadium: of Arsenal’s captain actually captaining Arsenal.