Aaron Ramsey: I want to be Arsenal captain

 

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Leader of men: Ramsey wants to take the Arsenal armband
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James Benge31 July 2015

Aaron Ramsey hopes to one day take over as Arsenal captain having previously worn the armband for his country.

The midfielder wore the armband for Arsene Wenger’s side in a pre-season friendly at Boreham Wood and, although he is behind club captain Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla in the leadership stakes the 24-year-old believes he has everything needed to one day lead Arsenal.

“I've made a load of appearances now, I definitely feel one of the leaders, but I feel this group of players all have their own leadership skills,” Ramsey told ESPNFC.

“It was nice to be given the armband, even though it was just a preseason friendly, but it's something I would like to do one day, to be captain. It's a great honour and achievement to do that, I've had experience of doing it with my country, it would be nice to do that [for Arsenal] one day."

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Ramsey was selected by Gary Speed to lead Wales at just 20 years of age in 2011 though Chris Coleman replaced him with Ashley Williams a little over a year later. And Ramsey still feels disappointed that his new coach reacted to a series of disappointing results by stripping him of the armband.

“Gary Speed made me captain [and] we shot up the world rankings, we were playing some good stuff, everything was going well. Then certain things happened, and it was a tough time for all of us. It went downhill a bit from there, there were a couple of bad results, and there was a lot of pressure on us all.

Stanley Chou/Getty Images

“That was what Chris [Coleman] decided to do. It felt like he didn't want to put any more pressure on me, and he wanted to give it to Ashley Williams.

“That was his decision, I respect it and I certainly don't hold that against him now, because there's no point. It was definitely a disappointment but hopefully one day I can get it back.”

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