Arsenal have asked their players to take a 12.5% pay cut for the next year and right now Mesut Ozil is the only player who has not agreed to this decision.
While the other players have chosen to back their club at the time of this crisis but the German is still pondering over his choice which has forced him to face the wrath of many fans as well as pundits.
But according to Ray Parlour, the biggest reason why Arsenal are in such a mess right now is that the squad currently lacks a proper leader, one who can stand up and demands everyone to follow in one path.
“It shows the [lack of] leadership qualities again,” Parlour said on talkSPORT, as quoted by the Express.
“In my era, Tony Adams was the captain and he would have gone round to every single player and it’s going to be ‘we all agree together to do what we’re going to do – we either all do it, or we don’t do it.’
“And I would have gone ‘Yep, I totally agree Tone, I’m going to do it as well’.
“It would have been a decision that everybody does it, so it shows a little bit of lack of leadership again. Even Patrick Vieira when he was captain would have done exactly the same.
“It’s down to the players, there wouldn’t have been a meeting with the manager or anybody like that, it would be down to the players. Patrick would have been on the phone saying, ‘this is the plan the club wants to do, what is the feedback?’. And then you all agree.
“So it’s negative news again that [Arsenal] don’t need, at this time. It’s up to the skipper to do it. He is the spokesman and you’ve got to go with the majority.”
Do Arsenal have a leader in their current squad?
On paper, Aubameyang is the current club captain at Arsenal but the forward has been given the armband because right now, he’s the biggest superstar at the club.
As Ray Parlour has said, the Gunners have been blessed with a number of charismatic leaders over the past couple of decades but they have been missing that influential figure over the last few years.
In fact, the standards have stooped so low that a player like Granit Xhaka has foul-mouthed the home crowd and he is still playing first-team football the club.
Right now, no Arsenal player can stand up and claim that all of his teammates will listen to him and follow his instructions and this is why Arteta needs to focus his best work in trying to nurture a leader.
Good players will come and go but what the Gunners need is someone who can lead the side through difficult times, both with words as well as actions.
