Is William Gallas the Inheritor of an Impossible Mission at Arsenal?

I have been asked by the World Football Co-Community Leader, Salaar Shamsi, to write an article on the—widely debated of late—theme about the captaincy of William Gallas at Arsenal.

Many questions have been raised since he took the armband in 2007. William Gallas has been the reason for countless debates amongst Arsenal supporters and many others whether he is the right choice to captain Arsenal.

Well, let’s analyze the facts that are at hand and see if he is the one.

Firstly, it would be good to know what qualities are needed to be a capable leader. The combination of all of the following qualities would make a good leader and captain of a team.

One of the most important qualities of a leader who can captain a sports team is the ability to take the responsibility not only for his own actions but also for the actions of the team. A good leader is willing to take responsibility for the failure of his team. A man who escapes from this responsibility can not be a good captain.

Undoubtedly, William Gallas has recently improved as a captain. After the game with Dynamo Kiev, he stated in an interview that he was not happy for scoring the equalizing goal.

Contrary to the thing he has done, he answered that he was disappointed that the team failed to take all the points. This is a genuine indication that Gallas has burdened himself with a lot more responsibility than people think.

An equally important quality for a leader on the field as the ability to carry responsibility on your shoulders, is to be able to act as an example to your team-mates. Experience can strongly emphasize the effect of this quality even more.

Once again it is something William Gallas does not lack. Even Arsene Wenger has seen it. He has chosen him for captain of Arsenal for a second year running. It may be so due to the fact that he has seen in Gallas an unwavering strength of character, which blended with some good communication skills, could enormously inspire the younger players at Arsenal.

We have seen him score crucial goals on numerous occasions when even the Arsenal attackers have failed to do so. At the age of 30, it would be madness to say that he does not have the needed experience to know what to do in difficult situations.

Another very important quality to have in order to be a good leader of a team is to be emotionally mature and to be able to exercise good self-control in challenging times.

A good captain will know that all the eyes will be pointed towards him and in response he must try to adequately react as to show the right path for his team-mates.

The current Arsenal captain has failed in some cases to show this quality and for that he has been severely criticized. But make no mistake, he has learned his lesson.

He has been a lot more composed since the incident at the Birmingham game, slowly regaining the faith of the Arsenal supporters and his team-mates.

A necessary trait to a leader’s character is integrity. The ability to be honest and stand true to your principles is something that is not unknown to the current Arsenal captain.

William Gallas has stated more than once that strength, preparation, and hard work are the way to achieve your goals. The young players could only benefit from that kind of leadership.

In a perfect world, all will be ideal but in the world that we live in nothing is perfect and neither is William Gallas. He has had difficult times and he has made difficult decisions—which sometimes have turned out to be wrong.

But hey, who doesn’t make mistakes?

In the end it is important to show signs of improvement. And that is exactly what he has showed.

Maybe that is why Arsene Wenger has made Gallas the Arsenal captain for the second year running. And maybe that is why he is the right choice for captain at the moment.

Arsenal has had great leaders and captains through the years. People like Tony Adams, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, and many more made the job a lot harder for the future captains of Arsenal, by raising the bar sky-high.

Nevertheless, whatever is said about the current Arsenal captain, it should not be forgotten that there are also other people on the field which help the team go onward.

People like Francesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure, and I will even dare to mention Manuel Almunia, have all contributed to maintain the good spirit of the team in one way or another.

Arsenal are a team, and as all the other teams they should be judged as a team. It is true that William Gallas has failed in some situation to be the inspirational captain all the Arsenal fans wanted but he has done a good job so far.

That should not to be dismissed so easily.