THE VIEW FROM THE STANDS
HARSH Guatemala are out of World Cup qualifying despite conceding no goals and scoring 14 in four games. They came second in the group to Curacao
A DYING ART
What makes a captain in today’s game? Being the best player? Or being the oldest? Maybe it’s the length of time a player has been at a club. Long gone are the days of the galvanising captain who would grab a game by the scruff of the neck or bark orders at his team-mates, a la Roy Keane. Unai Emery once had five captains at Arsenal, which is funny – because if there was one team who has lacked leadership over the last few years, it’s Arsenal. It’s possible that the decline of the captain goes hand in hand with the rise of head coaches in the game, meaning that players are never unsure what to do or where to be, as they’ll be constantly receiving orders from the touchline. Aside from shaking hands with officials and choosing which way to shoot, what does a captain do now?