Mikel Arteta believes our captain, Martin Odegaard, has ‘hundreds’ of qualities as the Norwegian prepares to lead out the team at Old Trafford this weekend.
Martin has held the armband since the 2022/23 campaign and ahead of our clash with Manchester United to kick off our Premier League campaign, Mikel took time to recognise our skipper’s leadership skills.
“Martin has got hundreds of qualities and everybody who has come across him will notice them very quickly,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“The biggest one is that to be named captain, to be respected and especially admired by somebody, he doesn’t need to shout. That’s a massive quality. A lot of people talk and shout, and then when you close the door, they do something very different.
“Martin doesn’t need to open his mouth and everybody says ‘he’s my captain, I want him to represent, I trust him 100 per cent, he’s the guy I want to have next to me.’”
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Every word from Mikel’s pre-Man United presser
Mikel revealed the players and staff voted for their captain, and the results were clear.
He said: “By a mile, by a big, big 100 marks, everybody chose the same person, which is Martin Odegaard, which is the most clear sign that you can have, how they feel about who has to be their captain to defend, improve and win the matches that we want to win. So, I mean, there’s no question about that.”
“If we’re going to talk about leadership and the kind of leaders, we can be here for hours.
“So at the end, what matters the most is how these guys feel about who needs to lead them, how they feel comfortable, who’s going to push them, who’s going to give them support when it’s happening. Basically, who do you want to represent the club and the team when we go out there and face any opposition? That’s the key.”
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