The Arsenal community has lost two of their most experienced writers and Community Leaders—Shyam Parthasarathi and Maire Ofeire, coincidentally at the same time.

Their departure looks like Hleb and Flamini's, umm...well not "exactly" like them because both Hleb and Flamini left because of money, whereas Shyam and Mary left because of their personal reasons.

The departures of Mary and Shyam have left the Arsenal community weakened, because if you take a look at the "top" writers in the Arsenal community are mainly one or two months old or are not Gooners.

To be a Community Leader you have to contribute a LOT—seriously, take a look at me, four months old, 1043 comments posted, and 17 Real Madrid articles and I comment on EVERY Real Madrid article, but still I have not been made the Community Leader.

Sorry this is not about me, but considering the fact that you have to contribute a LOT, that takes out many talented Arsenal writers and Gooners out of the running for the Community Leader post.

And it will be sad to have a Manchester United fan or any other team's fan to be Arsenal's Community Leader(s).

But wait there is hope, there are contenders for the Arsenal Community Leader spot and worthy contenders at that. Here I am putting up names of good experienced and truly devoted contributors of the Arsenal community.

Probably the most active person of b/r let alone the Arsenal community, in writing articles that is. But it is truly rare and delightful to see Callum comment.

Callum has written a whopping 225 articles on Arsenal, maybe he is writing one more now. It will be good to have such an active Community Leader, but writing articles is not the sole job of the CL, a CL has to encourage their fellow community members and read and comment on their articles and help them out in their problems relating b/r.

Stefan is a valuable contributor of the Arsenal section with 33 Arsenal articles. Stefan's articles and comments feel good to read, and he is not one of the "angry" type of writers, who doesn't get pissed off by articles (or maybe he doesn't show it) and comment in a fiery manner.

Stefan would be a worthy CL, but looking at his "Article Archive" it is clear that Stefan writes continuously and then takes a break. I do not know whether he visited b/r in those patches to read Arsenal articles or not.

Oh, I forgot, Stefan has been awarded with an AOTD.

Frankly speaking, I have never come across Benjamin, but he is the fifth ranked Arsenal writer, Benjamin's writing style is good and he seems a good guy to me. I am sorry I cannot tell much about him. If you guys know, please comment, I'll add it to the article.

Alex is a fan of no one, I mean a fan of no particular team, he just loves the sport. Alex Dimond as everyone knows reads EVERYONE's article in the football section, as he is a staff editor. Un-biased and true, Alex is a fantastic writer as well, Alex could be Arsenal community's Andrei Arshavin, but the problem is will Alex be willing to take the post as he is always busy editing, and the post of Community Leader would add to his work-load.

Only two months on b/r Awesome™ Eldin as he calls himself, has churned out 14 articles, and is a fun to read writer. MEM also comments nearly everywhere on Arsenal related articles. But MEM has set his sights already to become the CL of Milan. Also he might re-decorate the links on the Arsenal page as "This site is an awesome™ source for Arsenal related news".

 

I had considered to put myself as a candidate for the Arsenal Community Leader, but decided against it as never can I equal Mary and Shyam—I always looked upto them, tried to mimic their style and asked for their help.

Mary and Shyam, you will always be the "true" Community Leaders of Arsenal, no matter who takes over. All the Gooners of b/r wish you luck.

Take your pick Gooners, who do YOU want to be your Community Leader, comment below. And if I might have unknowingly missed out on someone good, please mention him/her in the comments section.

 

Note: You cannot mention yourself as the one I missed or even vote for yourself. If you are good, the Gooners are bound to pick you.

Unrelated Note: A minute's silence for Daniel Jarque (26)—the RCD Espanyol cpatain, who died due to cardiac arrest yesterday.