Øh Captain, My Captain

It’s a rather slow Thursday, as we await the match Saturday against Brentford. As discussed on the podcast yesterday, Mikel Arteta has some big decisions to make on playing his best XI vs. potentially instituting a degree of rotation ahead of a hectic week. Personally I want to guarantee the three points before City and have us come in firing on all cylinders with a bigger gap should the result not go our way.

In the meantime, I think it’s only fair we discuss the piece on Captain Martin Ødegaard in The Players Tribune. I’ve long been a fan of TPT and the content they put out, but there are certainly times where it’s clear that the content is not genuine and from the first person perspective they want you to believe. In this case, there’s no doubt that this was a genuine story from our Norwegian superstar.

Many of us remember back to the hype of Ødegaard, the incredible boy wonder who was going to be the next big thing in world football. The question wasn’t if he would make it, but rather which club would he pick. We were interested, but it was clear he was going for that next level of club. Madrid was his choice and off he went. Situations like this are typically impossible. You can never surpass expectations – you either fall short or by some miracle achieve them. The only athlete I can remember, at least in my lifetime, being hyped to that degree and fulfilling it is LeBron James – “The Chosen One”.

As he said in the interview, a huge selling points of choosing Real Madrid was the ability to play for Zidane and La Castilla right away rather than have to compete against the best players in the world for a place in the team right away. As is the case for most youth players, you hit a point where you’re simply too good for that level, but not good enough for a top club’s first team. In Arsenal’s case, there are very few Bukayo Sakas and way more Jay Emmanuel Thomases. With that said, Saka didn’t have the expectations Ø had nor was he trying to break into the Real Madrid first team. That’s nothing against Arsenal, but the Arsenal team Saka was breaking into was very different than the Real team Ø was trying to break into.

After a nomadic existence, it seemed very clear when the Norwegian arrived at Arsenal that he was very much at home. Real Sociedad was undoubtedly a solid option, somewhere he went on loan, did well and also felt at home. With that said, you can’t claim Sociedad to be the level a player like Ødegaard should be aspiring to. Arsenal was the perfect option at the perfect time. Everything clicked, but Real seemed determined to bring him back. Despite this, Arteta wasn’t ready to give up. Fans were dismayed when we allowed Aston Villa to sign Emi Buendia, a clear target of ours it seemed. In the background, clearly Arsenal still thought a deal could be done with Madrid and ultimately got it done for a fee that looks laughable in retrospect.

To see Martin evolve into key player, a guarantee on the team sheet and now the club captain for the, what seems to be, foreseeable future is clearly a dream come true for the player. It is for us too. What a player, what a signing, what a person. He exemplifies all the attributes Arsenal want to represent and we are so so lucky to have him. Øh Captain, My Captain.

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