Ayling or Cooper or aren't Captains important anymore ?

[bremnerboy28]

Personally I prefer Ayling to Cooper, never quite rated Cooper as captain he just doesn't seem to get involved enough. Watched Ayling against Chelsea and he was constantly talking and organising everybody plus intervening and calming things down with the ref when he was ticking off and booking players.Even when Cooper is playing Ayling is always the one who looks as if he's the captain of the side. On the Amazon Prime films he seems to be the one that everything revolves around and is obviously a popular and respected player. Never understood Jansson not being picked as captain instead of Cooper, I think he would still be with us if he had been as it might have took the edge of his showmanship and focused him more on the job as he was obviously a big influence on the squad but maybe not channelled in the right direction at times. I think he would have thrived as captain and notably it was the first thing that Thomas Frank did when he signed him. Sad day. Which brings me round to " Are Captain's important anymore ? " There doesn't seem to be the same importance and respect to being captain nowadays as there used to be but is it just a case that we're not producing captain material within the academy set ups and it's all a bit nicey nicey and sterile. Where are the Billy Bremners, Tony Adams, Roy Keanes , Patrick Vieras, John Terrys Steven Gerrards etc You look up and down the Premier League and not many names stand out at all and watching games you've no idea whose captain most of the time unless you are told. Going back to the good old days when I played local football in the 70's and 80's it was always a big deal to be made captain of your team and you felt a sense of pride in doing it and I know football's moved on a lot from those days but being captain doesn't seem to be that big of a deal today.

[danhirons]

If it's not broken don't fix it...

We got promoted with coops as captain and have done well this season.
He seems to have the respect of the players.

But if Koch and Llorente become the first choice centre back pair then I think you can expect someone like ayling or (maybe KP?) taking over. Although you can't deny Luke is committed and a great player I'm not entirely sure I see him as captain material personally (bit more of a joker...) but I don't know what happens behind closed doors at training sessions or in the changing rooms

[Ron Swanson]

I’m not sure why Cooper was given the job originally, considering he only got in the first team when Bartley left... however nobody can argue against his staggering improvement as a player in the time he has been working with Bielsa.

His time in the starting XI might be coming to an end, however he could still remain the club skipper whilst someone else leads the side on the field. I dunno.

Ayling is clearly next in line, then Dallas, I’d say.

The trophy presentation was those three first... they seem to be the senior players at the club.

[Allrounder]

To become a captain in football nowadays seems only to be some honorary post. It's not like in Cricket where captain is everything.

[1964white]

My wish has always been Kalvin would become captain of Leeds one day, whether KP is captain material is open to debate

[MightyWhites]

I think the captains role is still very important. It's good to have the managers voice on the field and if the manager is not happy with the performance then he/she can speak to the captain who can pass it on, as well as acting as a peacemaker with the ref. You only have to look at Arsenal who for all of their quality players do not have a Tony Adams character in the team and I think are not doing as well as they should be because of it.

[Fridge]

Wouldn’t want to put down Cooper in any way as he seems a great guy, but for me the captain is Ayling.

After a loss or difficult game, it always seems to be Ayling that steps up in front of the camera (I’m thinking Forest last year in particular).

Aside from that I think Ayling makes our ideal XI whereas I think Cooper probably missed out to Koch and Llorente.

My wish has always been Kalvin would become captain of Leeds one day, whether KP is captain material is open to debate

If KP is still at the club when Cooper/Ayling leave then I think this will end up happening. Whether he is captain material on the pitch or not I suppose we would have to find out, but to me he seems a very sensible and down to Earth lad so as an ambassador for the club I think he would do a great job as captain.



At the end of the day, the captaincy was decided by an election between the players, I can’t think of a better way to do it than that.