{"id":85306,"date":"2025-08-15T17:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T17:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85306\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T17:49:11","slug":"arsenal-players-voted-to-keep-martin-odegaard-as-captain-by-a-mile-says-mikel-arteta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85306\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal players voted to keep Martin Odegaard as captain \u2018by a mile\u2019, says Mikel Arteta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta says that Arsenal held a vote among the squad in which the players endorsed the choice of Martin Odegaard as captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy opinion is clear, and it\u2019s not just my opinion \u2014 it\u2019s all the staff and especially the players,\u201d Arteta told a news conference on Friday ahead of Arsenal\u2019s Premier League opener against Manchester United. \u201cI asked them to vote (for) the captain, and I got the results yesterday, and by a mile \u2014 by a hundred miles \u2014 everybody chose the same person, which is Martin Odegaard, which is the most clear sign that you can have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s how they feel about who has to be their captain: to defend, to improve and win the matches that they want to win. So I think there is no question about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arteta explained the vote was part of assessing the leadership hierarchy within the squad after a summer of considerable activity in the transfer market.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially because we change a lot and we change all the leadership groups because a lot of the players that were there now, they are gone,\u201d Arteta said. \u201cSo, we need to re-establish that. It gives you so much information, really how they feel about themselves and how they see as a leader and how they see the people that can join that leadership group. So, it was really interesting to analyse all the data and to gather information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odegaard, 26, was named as Arsenal captain in July 2022. Arteta\u2019s endorsement comes off the back of former Arsenal captain Tony Adams stating he would like to see Arteta replace Odegaard as captain with Declan Rice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a really big call to make this year and for me, he hasn\u2019t done it. The call is to make Declan Rice the captain,\u201d Adams told the audience at an Irish Independent Sport<\/a> event in Dublin last week. \u201cEvery now and again as a manager, you have to put someone who reflects you, who reflects the football club that you think can actually take you to the next level.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got someone in there who\u2019s going to play every game all season, that\u2019s going to encourage people to come in and lay the foundations of a title-winning team. Declan Rice can do that, Odegaard can\u2019t. Come on Arteta, make him captain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Adams<\/p>\n

Adams spent his whole career at Arsenal, playing 672 games (Tim Merry \u2013 WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Arteta dismissed the idea of replacing Odegaard as captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all see it different,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to talk about leadership and the kind of leaders we can be here for hours. So, at the end what matters the most is how these guys feel about who needs to lead them, how they feel comfortable, who is going to push them, who is going to give them support when it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, who do you want to represent the club and the team when we go out there and face any opposition? That\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odegaard is Arteta\u2019s trusted lieutenant<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a ringing endorsement of Odegaard\u2019s captaincy from Arteta. I wouldn\u2019t expect anything else: Odegaard is a trusted lieutenant to the manager, with an exemplary attitude.<\/p>\n

My personal feeling is the captaincy is somewhat arbitrary: the likes of Rice, Gabriel and Bukayo Saka are all leaders within the squad, who are able to contribute without necessarily wearing the armband.<\/p>\n

As for Odegaard, the most important thing isn\u2019t whether or not he skippers the team \u2014 it\u2019s whether his form improves. He had a difficult season in 2024-25, interrupted by injury. If Arsenal are to achieve their goals this season, they will need Odegaard at his best. That strikes me as much more important than who is designated captain.<\/p>\n

Team news<\/p>\n

Ahead of Arsenal\u2019s trip to Old Trafford, Arteta confirmed that new signing Martin Zubimendi should be available for inclusion. \u201cHe had a great integration,\u201d said Arteta. \u201cEverybody can witness immediately a very big impact on the team and we\u2019re really happy and he will be fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another summer arrival, Viktor Gyokeres, could be on course to line up against former manager Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he\u2019s getting better and better every day,\u201d Arteta said on Gyokeres. \u201cHe\u2019s normally a really fit player. It\u2019s true that he hasn\u2019t trained so much with us. He had those two moments in games when he participated and the feeling was very good. So let\u2019s see what we do on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arteta also confirmed that Leandro Trossard may be available for Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta says that Arsenal held a vote among the squad in which the players endorsed the choice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[463,403,99],"class_list":["post-85306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-arsenal","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}