Emmanuel Adebayor a Wild-Card Option as Tottenham Struggle to Find Next Captain

As the Premier League resumes action this weekend following the international break, Tottenham will move forward under new on-pitch leadership.

Following the departure of club captain Michael Dawson to Hull City prior to the transfer deadline, head coach Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed that he will select the club's new captain over the next few days.

The Argentine has confirmed Dawson's successor will be formally announced on Monday, although it would seem Saturday’s game against Sunderland will give the game away depending on who is handed the armband at the Stadium of Light.

Defender Younes Kaboul led the side in the first match after Dawson’s departure, a 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool, but it remains to be seen if Kaboul is a part of Pochettino’s preferred XI going forward, let alone the man he will pick to lead a squad that has long seemed in need of a dominant dressing-room influence.

“We will decide about the captain in the next few days,” Pochettino told reporters two weeks ago. “When the transfer window is closed. It is important that we have many leaders in the group.”

The fact that Pochettino wanted to wait until the window closes suggests a number of possibilities. Perhaps he did not see many leaders in his current squad and was anticipating buying a player who might be able to take on the role. Or perhaps he had a potential candidate in mind but was worried that the individual (like Dawson) could end up leaving before the window closed (in the modern game, the club captain does not seem to have to be a regular starter, as Thomas Vermaelen showed last season at Arsenal).

Either way, Pochettino’s desire to wait to make his decision would not seem to be especially good news for the man suggested by many as the most likely selection, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was never likely to be going anywhere on deadline day.

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Captain of his country and, as his club’s No. 1, a certain starter for Spurs, Lloris would seem to have a number of factors in his favour—although some of his recent comments do not quite sound like a man who expects to receive Pochettino’s blessing.

“I don’t really need to wear the armband to feel like a leader for the team,” Lloris said last month per Eurosport:

"

I’m very proud to be the captain of the French national team, and for Tottenham it’s just my natural decision, but I’m not expecting something about that.

I’m just trying to do my job in the best way and try to help the team to have the best performances.

In the changing room I know that I have my place and I try to be an example for everyone, especially for my young team-mates, because in the squad there are a lot of young players.

"

That does not sound like a man who expects to be imminently promoted from private to general, although perhaps he was just inelegantly making the (very valid) point that a bit of fabric around the bicep does not miraculously turn a man into a leader.

Lloris is the obvious choice, but with that being the case you wonder why Pochettino did not appoint him weeks ago.

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Beyond Lloris the only other prominent candidate would appear to be defender Jan Vertonghen, who is on the verge of signing a new contract with the club according to the Daily Express' David Wright. The captaincy could be used to entice the Belgian—who has previously been linked very strongly with big clubs on the continent—to sign an extension that has long been speculated about or serve as an additional bit of positive of PR if a contract announcement was already being planned for next week.

Seemingly ensconced as the first name on the team sheet in his preferred central-defensive position, Vertonghen is likely to start the majority of Spurs’ games this season, and in a role that has historically produced more than its share of strong captains.

The only concern—and it is a pretty notable one—is how suited the 27-year-old actually is to a leadership role. Hardly the most demonstrative on the pitch, there is perhaps a reason that the likes of Kaboul have been chosen over him when Dawson has not been on the pitch in recent times. If Pochettino wants to use the captaincy to secure one of his key players for the long term then Vertonghen could be selected, but otherwise you wonder if there are not better options elsewhere in the squad.

Kaboul could grab the armband on a permanent basis, although again he seemed conspicuously lacking in authority and command as his side struggled to match up with Liverpool in the club’s last game. New signing Federico Fazio is also likely to replace him in the first team over time—Pochettino could make a bold move and give the former Sevilla captain the armband at his new club, but that would seem an unnecessary extra pressure to pile on his compatriot as he also adjusts to a new league, a new culture and new team-mates.

Beyond that, however, the options become less and less obvious—Spurs, for better of worse, have no player with the obvious qualities of a John Terry or Steven Gerrard.

Aaron Lennon was Dawson’s vice-captain and is the club’s longest-serving player but is unlikely to play very frequently in the Premier League this season. The former England international also does not strike as a particularly dominant dressing-room figure—less so than Kaboul, certainly—making it somewhat dubious whether he would be an effective non-playing captain. Other players more likely to start on a regular basis—Etienne Capoue, Paulinho, Erik Lamela, Kyle Walker, Eric Dier—and all would seem to lack the requisite authority for different reasons, while Christian Eriksen should perhaps be left to concentrate on his responsibility to be the primary creative influence on his side.

At this point, Pochettino is scouting around desperately for candidates.

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An outside possibility, one few seem to be considering, is Emmanuel Adebayor. The 30-year-old has a fairly chequered personal reputation within the football fraternity—and has had his fair share of troubles even in his time at White Hart Lane—but he is at least one Spurs player who undoubtedly wears his heart on his sleeve, even if his passion is often poorly directed.

So far he seems to have taken to his new manager’s methods—and edged Roberto Soldado in the race to be the first-choice striker—hinting at a decent working relationship that could perhaps serve as the foundation of something more.

“We all have fun and enjoy it,” Adebayor told the club's official website after the recent win over QPR. “The gaffer asks us to get on the pitch and enjoy ourselves. We had the right ambition and did the job from the first to the last minute."

Andre Villas-Boas ostracised Adebayor and soon lost his job. Tim Sherwood brought the ex-Arsenal man back into the fold and was rewarded with 11 goals over the rest of the league campaign. What could being made captain galvanise the 30-year-old to achieve?

Pochettino may feel giving Adebayor a leadership responsibility could be the making of a striker who is undoubtedly talented, if prone to waning interest and disruptive antics (Villas-Boas did not exile him for nothing). It would be playing with fire to an extent—handing the captaincy to a player who could only use it to cause greater disruption—but it could also channel that energy in a positive direction, to the benefit of both him and the rest of the team.

Togo, of course, tried a similar tactic in awarding Adebayor the international captaincy in 2007, a move that has resulted in its share of ups and downs. The striker remains their leader, however, which must speak to some of his qualities—even if it remains predominantly due to his ongoing status as far and away their most prominent player.

“I was born as a leader, don’t get me wrong,” Adebayor himself said in March via Darren Lewis of the Daily Mirror. “I have been the captain of my country since 2007.

“I’m not going to say that I speak a lot, but whenever I have to speak in the dressing room I will do it. And I will do it starting with myself, because that is always important.”

The simple truth is the current Spurs squad lacks obvious leaders, a void that Pochettino will probably end up needing to fill himself from the sidelines (some will say that in the modern game it is largely a ceremonial role anyway).

Lloris would appear to be the conventional choice, with Vertonghen a similarly straightforward selection that might bring some tangential benefits.

Adebayor would be the wild card, although few would blame Pochettino for going for the safer option.