Who should be Captain next season ?

[The Rational Fan]

I can only assume all these assumptions about McDonald's personality type are based on him being a combative DM. If you follow the players on social media you'll see that whilst he's clearly a positive influence in the dressing room, he's also a bit of a clown. A decent vice-captain but not proper captain material IMO.

Cairney on the other hand initially comes across as a bit of a tart with his haircut and designer clothes, but on closer inspection he's a bit of a Bobby Moore type IMO - very much focussed on his football, family and not a lot else.

Cairney isn't one of those Roy Keane type captains that some people seem to crave but there isn't much room for them in the modern game anyway. And they never were that useful - always liable to get sent off or get in a row with one their teammates or something.

Cairney seems to get on with everyone and be somewhat of a calming influence, difusing tensions and focussing minds, which IMO is far more useful.

My only concern about Cairney is that IMO the captain needs to be in the starting XI week in, week out, and at this level I'm not sure that's guaranteed with him. Obviously it also rules out McDonald and the other popular candidate, Ream.

If we stay up this year and Cairney becomes a rotation player, then (but only then) we should look for an alternate leader among the regular starters, IMO. Perhaps Hector depending on how the next 12 months go for him.

I mean, that's just perfectly put imho. I think Hector would be a good choice as well.

Tom Cairney is probably the best choice, he doesn't have many of the non-essential qualities that most people would like to have in an ideal captain like a great motivator, but he has everything a captain needs to have and none of the qualities that you don't want a captain having like being a clown KMac, first to leave training Stefjo (acccordonh yo an Cairney interview), getting into yoga fights Mitro, not mastered English enough to be captain like Caveleiro, some were away last season like Anguissa, some won't start if everyone is fit and some other players like to be alone don't like leading. If Chris Smalling joins he could be an ideal captain and Hector is potential too, but Tom Cairney is safe choice like David Beckham for England.

He should really intervened during 'Penaltygate'. There are no doubts he's lacking at times, he shouldn't be 'bemused' at something, he should be there to sort stuff out on the pitch. He just needs to be more commanding. The issue is that he's a confidence player (he needs everything to be 100% with the team to be at his best), this is reflected in his captaincy.

As I said previously, it's a none issue, he has Parker's backing. When I think of Captain, I think of Bryan Robson, Man Utd.

Tom Cairney didn't do anything in 'Penaltygate', but the worst kind of captain would have been more commanding and made things worse, probably with us ending up with two red cards with Bowyer and Dyer situtation. Bryan Robson is a top captain, but we don't have anyone close to him in the squad in terms of leadership. The worst idea would be choosing someone like KMac trying to be like Bryan Robson. If your not Bryan Robson, then trying to be Bryan Robson is a bad idea.

Tom Cairney's handling of 'Penaltygate' wasn't good and wasn't terrible, Kamara wasn't the coach's choice for penalty taker but he was an experienced penalty taker and had a perfect penalty-taking record up to that point in his career. Even after the miss, Kamara's penalty-taking record is still much better than Mitrovic's, with Kamara scoring six times for every time he missed and Mitro scoring twice for every time he missed.

Tom Cairney didn't have 20-20 hindsight knowing that Kamara would miss his first-ever penalty, and probably thought getting involved may give away a free-kick and lose the penalty, so better to let the second choice penalty taker shoot than get involved. I also wonder why Kamara thought he could take the penalty because previous times when both of them are on the field he has let Mitovic take the penalty, but after scoring a penalty against De Gea thinks he should take it.

[RaySmith]

Kamara was out of order - presumably Mitro was the designated pen taker. Kamara lost discipline, and just wanted a chance to  score since he'd the one been  brought down, i think.

Maybe Cairney should have intervened, but  he might have thought it would make matters worse in the heat of the moment.
I remember someone on a podcast criticised him, saying 'all he was interested in was how his hair looked, rather than taking charge of the situation.' But I think  Tom's patting his hair is just  a nervous habit, rather than excess vanity at an inappropriate moment, and he is someone  who  doesn't rush into things shouting, but tries to sum  up the situation, and maybe makes a quiet intervention at the right moment.

[Twig]

I can only assume all these assumptions about McDonald's personality type are based on him being a combative DM. If you follow the players on social media you'll see that whilst he's clearly a positive influence in the dressing room, he's also a bit of a clown. A decent vice-captain but not proper captain material IMO.

Cairney on the other hand initially comes across as a bit of a tart with his haircut and designer clothes, but on closer inspection he's a bit of a Bobby Moore type IMO - very much focussed on his football, family and not a lot else.

Cairney isn't one of those Roy Keane type captains that some people seem to crave but there isn't much room for them in the modern game anyway. And they never were that useful - always liable to get sent off or get in a row with one their teammates or something.

Cairney seems to get on with everyone and be somewhat of a calming influence, difusing tensions and focussing minds, which IMO is far more useful.

My only concern about Cairney is that IMO the captain needs to be in the starting XI week in, week out, and at this level I'm not sure that's guaranteed with him. Obviously it also rules out McDonald and the other popular candidate, Ream.

If we stay up this year and Cairney becomes a rotation player, then (but only then) we should look for an alternate leader among the regular starters, IMO. Perhaps Hector depending on how the next 12 months go for him. 

Nail hit on head.