Arsenal news: Adrian Durham slams ‘weak’ Unai Emery over Granit Xhaka captaincy decision
Adrian Durham believes Unai Emery has ‘shown weakness’ by allowing his Arsenal players to decide on the club’s new captain.
Granit Xhaka was named Arsenal skipper following a player vote, which was suggested by the Gunners boss.
And it is a decision which has bemused talkSPORT host Durham.
He said: “First of all this is a big decision from Unai Emery and he’s handed the decision over to his players.
"Now, think about that for a second, that to me shows weak management from Unai Emery.
“He’s got a big decision to make which could be important going forward – your captain is important - especially at a club like Arsenal who are trying to get back to where they were.
“They need some leadership, they need people to grab hold of the team when things aren’t going well.
“Do they have the right captain to do that? We’ve seen this week, with another club in the Championship (Derby), captaincy can be really important.
“If you’ve got the wrong man captaining your club, it can go completely and utterly wrong.”
Xhaka is at the top of Emery’s pool of captains with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Ozil revealed as the other options.
The Switzerland skipper has felt the wrath of Arsenal fans for his early season form, which included giving away a penalty in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham earlier this month.
Durham added: “With Arsenal, the players have chosen him. Are they choosing him because he’s popular, he’s one of the lads, he’s good?
"Is he going to let them get away with stuff? He’s able to negotiate his way out of fines for the players for lateness or whatever that might be?
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“There might be all the wrong reasons why they’ve said ‘yeah, we’ll have Granit Xhaka as captain’.
“What I know is this, so far this season the Arsenal fans have not been happy with Granit Xhaka, they don’t think he’s particularly good, they don’t want him in the team.
“So does this mean he’s going to stay in the team week in, week out? Can that be good for Arsenal?
“It is weakness from Unai Emery, at a moment where he could have really taken hold of the football club and made a decision which was good for the football club, he’s shown weakness.”