There have been a few stories linking the current Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen with a move away from the Emirates this summer, despite the fact that he is not officially for sale and was only handed the captain’s armband a year ago. Vermaelen himself has already said that he wants to stay and reclaim his place in the Gunners stating line up, but the rumours suggesting that he could leave just refuse to go away.

This is mainly because of the Belgian international losing his place to Laurent Koscielny at the end of last season. Vermaelen had suffered a loss in form, and the French centre back did not put a foot wrong after regaining his place, but that is no reason to just abandon a club, surely.

The former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon has urged Vermaelen not to give up on the Gunners. Dixon has great faith in our captain’s abilities, but he believes that he could stand to learn a thing or two. With Steve Bould, Dixon’s former team mate, starting to exert more of an influence on the defensive side of things behind the scenes at Arsenal, Dixon thinks that Vermaelen will benefit from staying where he is.

He said, “I think he should stay and fight for his place. We are now starting to see the fruits of Steve Bould’s work over this last year.

“They were a lot more solid towards the end of the season and I think he can benefit from that because he is a great defender, but as a team defender I think he’s got things to learn, and that’s where Steve’s knowledge will be utilised.”

I think that there is too much made of the situation myself. All of the big clubs want to have four top class central defenders. Two of those will be disappointed every time the team is announced. We want competition in order to keep all the players on their toes. Dixon is right about Vermaelen, though, but I am confident we will see the real player again next season.

1 thought on “Vermaelen must stay at Arsenal to improve says Dixon

  1. He was good before being made Captain. In that role he became unpopular and there was a bad atmosphere in the dressing room. Whether he can get back to where he was remains to be seen. These personality clashes don’t always go away. Arteta as captain brought the team back together again … and it showed. It was also said Bould was allowed to get back to drilling the defence … after the Spurs match.

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