Arsenal’s prolific defense kingpin Kolo Habib Toure would undoubtedly be a better captain at Emirates than France international William Gallas. Before digging into details, we should recognize that manager Arsene Wenger’s decision to hand captaincy role to the French bulky defender does not possess a genuine attachment to his heart. Wenger’s sudden decision, actually much unanticipated, was just anecdotal because he wanted to ensure 100 percent stability at the club before the season kicked off. This hasty move that occurred was a wise managerial approach to alleviate William Gallas who had joined the legion of skeptics not in favour of Wenger’s policy, less attracted to buying established world class players. This was therefore a fundamental issue for a genius manager like Wenger to look into and find an antidote especially in a situation when it is a senior and vastly experienced player making piercing noise. As such, Gallas was handed captaincy at the club with a mission possible to keep him quite and throw him in a position where he has no option but to always say positive things about his club. This move has actually paid off handsomely. Subsequently, his attitude on and off pitch has tremendously improved as well as his game since he crossed from Stamford Bridge where he fell out with the management. Gallas’s visibility of his double standards was loudly evident immediately after being handed an armband. He did not even remember that he had carried a negative attitude a couple of days before being handed captaincy responsibility, and started praising the young players as well as breathing fire that his club had all it takes to shock the world. Aint it hypocrisy? Whatever positive things he is talking about Arsenal is barely viewed as genuine but rather perceived as double standards. One might not be wrong to aver that the positive comments Gallas makes these days are out of his personal excitement to be a captain at a respectable club. He has actually based on his club role to flatter himself that he can aptly take similar responsibility at the French national team. He made this comment during the recent international break when he joined his national side. He simply doesn’t fit in. For France, the leader must be an upstanding gentleman that allows his football to do the talking – that’s to say Viera, Zidane, Desailly, and Deschamps. The majority of you would give it a thumb up if the Ivory Coast international Toure was accorded the captaincy role at Arsenal this season. Toure would have been a great choice because of his outstanding commitment to the club. A least he has shown fantastic leadership qualities when he occasionally steps in as a club captain and also when he leads his national side. Besides, Toure just a pure class. He is an outstanding defender who is brave and unafraid of throwing himself into the fray unlike the injury prone Gallas whose number of defensive blunders in two seasons at Arsenal is higher than Toure’s . Toure is known for his pace and strength, which enables him to bustles weaker attackers off the ball and to keep up with pacy strikers. He also possesses great marking ability and most of his tackles are timed to perfection. His defensive abilities mean that he usually does not get carded as he commits few fouls. His attacking instincts have enabled him to score a few goals. Even after Gallas scored a historical a goal in deep injury time against Manchester United to snatch a point for Arsenal, I still insist that the Ivory Coast international is a cut above him. Contact: emma.nsekanabo@rita.rw
