Gallas should be the Arsenal captain - politically

Arsene Wenger picks political captains these days. Thierry Henry was made Arsenal captain because Wenger wanted to keep him at the club and further empowering his ego was the best way to do it. It was a bad choice, Henry was an even worse captain than William Gallas. How can you have a captain who scowls at his team mates when they missplace a pass? Quite absurd.

Within a year of Gallas joining Arsenal the club had had another mediocre season. Gallas thought he was coming to Arsenal to win trophies, but all he saw was big players heading for the exit door. He was unsettled, so Wenger made the only decision he could and gave Gallas the armband for mostly the same reasons as he did Henry. The decision smelled funny and the appointment proved to be awkward, but it was the sensible political choice.

Alternatives? There are none. Despite his maturity, Fabregas has enough expectation on his plate without being made captain, and Toure lacks the composure to be a full-time captain. We all love Toure for his boundless enthusiasm, loyalty and pleasant demeanour, but he's not captaincy material - he too often panics under pressure, so why set conditions whereby he might panic even more?

Gallas is a peculiar guy who has an uncomfortable disposition - but it takes all sorts. Sometimes he does things that a captain shouldn't do and sometimes he does things that a captain should, like bollock a player or maraud forward and score a vital goal when it's really needed.

Wenger doesn't have much choice but to keep Gallas as captain, from the current pool of players he's the best man for the job, the only man for the job and removing it from him would demotivate him completely and be counter-productive. The players mostly get on with him and I'm sure they respect him, because he's done what they haven't, won a Premiership trophy and played in a World Cup final.

On the 23rd February 2008 he got extraordinarily over-emotional on an extraordinarily emotional day. The pundits laid into him with the sort of lack of compassion you would expect from ex-football players - ill-educated. Much like Sol Campbell, it's understandable that a lot of Arsenal fans have struggled to take Gallas their hearts - but it's best to let bygones be bygones and just support the player. Both before and after, he hasn't done a lot wrong - not deliberately at least - and he's now admitted his mistakes publicly. He reads all the crap in the papers just like we do so it wouldn't hurt to swallow our pride, understand the political machinery at work and make him feel wanted.