How Much Does A Captain Influence A Club’s Title Chances?
Arsenal have William Gallas, a player who agitated for a move away from Stamford Bridge on a contract dispute, was at Arsenal for only an year before he was made captain, has spent less time at Arsenal than most players at the club, is inspirational and temperamental, and has a habit of talking to the press (and criticises his teammates).
Liverpool have Steven Gerrard, a home-grown player, a leader on the pitch and off it, and most importantly, someone who commands the respect of the squad and manager.
Chelsea have John Terry, as home-grown a player as Chelsea are going to get, a leader and much respected by teammates and coaching staff.
Manchester United have Gary Neville, United boy for life and a capable leader. In his absence the standard-bearers have been Ryan Giggs (another home boy and well-respected) and Rio Ferdinand, the de facto captain, a leader on the pitch, a senior member of the squad and determined to see his career out at the club after having spent 5 years at Old Trafford.
Notice the difference?
Now the interesting thing here is the link between man-management in a business and man-management in a club. In both cases you have personality clashes, the drive to work as a team, egos, respect issues, people coming and leaving, leaders and star performers. In both cases, the owner / manager must know everything there is to know about the squad - (preparation can help but ultimately Benitez has a better understanding of Liverpool’s squad and capabilities than Scolari has of Chelsea’s) - Ferguson’s statement that the manager was the most important man at the club is spot on.
Similarly, if you are appointing leaders within your organisation, the man from within has a substantial advantage in terms of knowing his peers, of knowing how things work in the organisation and being in sync with the organisation’s mindset and philosophy. All else being equal, promoting from within is a more effective solution than promoting someone who is an outsider (relatively speaking).
In Gallas - and we said this last summer as well - Wenger made an outsider the leader when there was a suitable candidate within the club - Kolo Toure. Not selecting Silva or Lehmann was understandable - neither were expected to be long-term fixtures at Arsenal. Henry’s departure meant that Arsenal needed a fresh start, and as one of the senior members of the Gunners’ side (in terms of stature, experience and time spent at the club), Toure was the ideal person to take over the captaincy.
The one thing Toure lacked in comparison to Gallas was experience. And as I said last year, the decision was probably motivated by the desire to raise Billy’s game to a higher level by building the defence around him.
Whether it raised his game and saved Arsenal more points than he cost them is debatable and those who have followed Arsenal more closely than I have will be able to answer this better. The question I’m more interested in is - does the choice of captain influence a club’s form in any way and can it have enough of an impact to decide a closely-contested title race?
Going back to the comparison between businesses and clubs, as a leader Gallas faced several challenges. Some of those were impossible to cater for, such as the refereeing decisions that led to Arsenal’s exit from the Champions League. Others required a strong team spirit, mental fortitude from the players and a leader / manager who could drag his players kicking and screaming through the bad times so that they could come out the other end fighting.
As captain and leader, Gallas shoulders some responsibility for both Arsenal’s successes and failures. He bailed Arsenal out on several occasions with his defending and contributed with goals as well. On the other hand, he failed as a leader in gelling the squad together when they needed to play like a team and he failed in leading by example by complaining about the unfairness of Arsenal’s situation instead of fighting for Arsenal’s chances in the league while they still had the lead.
Could a different choice of captains have changed history? Not as much as getting refereeing decisions right (which see Everton qualify for the Champions League ahead of Liverpool) but in the context of the title race and how close it was right till the end, would a captain who was better at building team spirit and a more durable character under pressure than William Gallas have changed history for Arsenal and the Premier League?
Share your thoughts below on the impact Gallas had as Arsenal captain last season and on the broader question - can the choice of captain influence a title race?
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Horses for courses - Gallas was the right captain for Arsenal last year.
By any normal yardstick, Arsenal’s kids were a great success last season. To blame Gallas for that seems a bit odd. 83 pts, 15 more than the year, just 4 behind the so called incredible Man U, was one hell of an achievement, and still 7 points ahead of the vastly improved Liverpool.
Wenger took a gamble last season - his young team tried to play above themselves, with a pace and confidence greater than their abilities justified. That requires tremendous self-confidence, and produces a team that is either on a roll, or on the rocks.
It is wrong to say that Arsenal crashed late last season - only that the big 2 started slow and finished strong, while Arsenal’s purple patch lasted a hell of a lot longer than Arsenal fans had a right to expect.
Gallas epitomises the make or break attitude that Arsenal had last season. He will scream till it all falls apart. He will get the best out of the team on a roll, and screw up the team once it falls on the rocks. As captain of Chelsea or Man U - who rely on simply having better players than the rest, he’d have been a disaster. As captain of the Liverpool strategic game plans, he’d have been a disaster too. But as leader of the all or nothing Arsenal of 2007/08 he was everything that Wenger could have dreamt of.
I thought Gallas helped cost Arsenal the Premiership last season. Arsenal really ran out of steam at the end of the season, and the party line is that if everyone had been healthy, then things would have gone better. However, things started falling apart when Eduardo got that broken leg against Birmingham City. Arsenal blew the game, even though they played most of the match with a man-advantage, and Gallas didn’t help by throwing a tantrum. It seems like the club never recovered, as they continued dropping points in the league and then exited the Champions League soon thereafter.
Sure, maybe you can’t blame Gallas for all of that, but as a leader, you’re supposed to set an example for the rest of the team, especially for one as young as Arsenal. Guys like Gallas, Toure, Lehmann, and Gilberto had been through the ups and downs of a season and should know how to keep a team focused on the big picture rather than dwell on one game. When the going got tough, the first thing that those Arsenal players saw was their captain crying and pouting. Not a good example there. Put it this way: would that collapse had happened at Liverpool with Gerrard and Carragher running things? Or at Chelsea with Terry or Gerrard? Or at Man. U with Giggs and Ferdinand (and Neville)? In fact, all three teams played well down the stretch.
I always felt that a captain should be someone that is well-respected within the locker-room and someone who can inspire his teammates to play better. If Gallas doesn’t have the respect of the locker-room, then he shouldn’t be captain. Plus, we all know he’s keeping it warm for Fabregas, anyway.
Wenger made a great gamble…& he lost. But it was a good bet to make considering how Gallas did all through the season up until the Birmingham game. Still can’t understand what made him self-destruct that way.
Anyway, i mentioned Fabregas for captain a few months ago & not many people agreed with me (Ahmed, i’m looking at you
).
With Gilberto gone, Fabregas is looking really good for captain now isn’t he? Lets see Wenger make another great gamble next season.
I believe that Wenger made a good decision by making Gallas captain because it drew the best out of him. Of all the old talk about Gallas and all his old shennanigans of the past he only really had the one breakdown this year. Did he pull together the team and marshall the troops for the stretch run? No. But they may not have been in such a good position if Gallas hadn’t been charged with the responsibility he so strongly took to heart at the beginning of the season.
I believe that Fabregas should be the captain at some point but I am not certain that he is mature enough for the job this year. Hopefully he would step up to the role if it is offered. Arsenal does need a true, solid, inspirational leader as it is very often a team filled with youngsters.
Yes, but doesn’t that say something about Gallas in the first place? If he needs the captain’s armband in order to play well and to stay in line, then what does that say about his leadership skills?
What happens in a few years if he’s still there and Wenger wants to make Fabregas the captain? Will Gallas throw a tantrum the way he did at Chelsea? By enabling Gallas’ monstrous ego, Wenger is only making the inevitable divorce nastier. He should have given the armband to Toure.
I agree with that, I think Toure is much more suitable for the job. He has shown he’s a smarter player, who has a better relationship with his teammates, and is more aware of what is going on during the game than Gallas. But the fact is (at least in my opinion) that Arsenal lacks a player who can be a capitain of the likes of Lampard, Terry, Neville, etc., and that’s why I think that Wenger’s policy to get all the young players he can catch is not going to work for him, because, knowing Arsenal, they will sell them when their price goes up.
Now, I think that there are teams that have a need of a captain, and some other teams were teammates just know eachother and don’t really need someone leading them. But you can see how much it hurts teams (like Manchester when Roy Keane left, or Boca Juniors when Riquelme went back to Spain, God knows what for) when they lose their captain. They were central for the team, not because they were indispensable, but because they were great leaders on the pitch, always knowing what everyone should be doing, and the rest of the players listened. The lack of that player I think is the reason behind the failure of some great teams, for example Barcelona during last season.
I still think Wegner is a genious for getting more quality out his center back. A good center back is hard to come by in this league and Gallas is quality when he is under control. We only need him as long as it takes to get one of the younger players up to speed. When that happens the armband can go to Fabregas or Toure. And who knows, maybe one year as the captain was all that Gallas needed to feel respected.
gallas is a player that i really respect most in the english league is leader that leads with example he really deserves the armband thanks gunnas 4real.
Spiral - Fab’s not the right age, nor the right temperament to be the captain yet. In the future maybe, not now.
Mickey - Arsenal had a much-improved season, agreed. Just saying that Gallas isn’t the right man for the job because he’s too narcissistic to put the team ahead of himself at all times.