Cohen For Captain?

It’s not like me to be reactive, generally I try to look at things with a relatively reasonable sense of perspective, but in the light of recent results I can’t help questioning the role of Captain at Forest, and the people occupying this role.

Ian Breckin is currently sitting in the role as club captain, although as someone who values the role of captain as an important, no, integral part of football in this country, I don’t think this is good enough. Breckin is unlikely to play more than 15 games this year, if that, and whilst he may have an influence off the pitch, why should he need to take the permanent Captains armband away from the team in order to have such influence? However, it’s all well and good posing questions like this, but unless you have a particular solution yourself the criticism hold rather less potency. In this light, I’m going to discuss the potential candidates, should the captaincy be stripped from our veteran centre back.

Perhaps the most prominent replacement in the captaincy role would be Kelvin Wilson, who tends to captain the Reds in Breckins many absences. However, I have a problem with this. There are some positives to having him as captain, most notably perhaps his Nottingham roots, and his position as a centre back. However, I feel that Wilson’s game is too fragile to take on the captaincy. As Larry Lloyd spotted very astutuely, there is a fine line between a centre back who is calm under pressure, and can play football at the back, like Rio Ferdinand, and a centre back who messes around with the ball at the back. Wilson has crossed this line too many times. I’m actually a great fan of his as a footballer, and I think that he is one of our better players, but like Ferdinand inthe past, I think he needs time to mature and perfect his game, and cut out the mistakes, and the captaincy will do him no good in this respect.

The second candidate that comes to mind is Luke Chambers; Chambers was Colin’s Captain at Northampton for a period, and you would have thought that this would stand him in good stead to take the Forest armband. However, it seems that a combination of relatively poor performances, being played out of position, and now, not guaranteed of a starting place whatsoever. Also, given the things I’ve said above I think it is clear that Chambers has enough to be thinking  about.

My third potential candidate is James Perch. Perchy may be relatively quiet, but he leads by example on the pitch. His performances have been most excellent this season, but given that I dont usually think he merits a place in the team, I think he should be allowed to concentrate on keeping these performances going, especially in the absence of any ability from Moussi.

My final, and favourite candidate is Chris Cohen. I can’t praise this guy enough. His ability and level of performances this season have been high, probably even higher than last year. His work rate is unbelievably high, and plays every game as if he was a die hard fan of the club, and his life was on the line should we lose. Cohen is a delightful mix between hard work and quality, and has this year been the Reds’ best player by a mile in my opinion. Cohen leads by example on the pitch, talks a good, mature game off it, and is young and ambitious, as hopefully, Forest are. Cohen is the man to be given the armband, and could be a talismanic Steven Gerrard esque figure for years to come at Nottingham Forest. Chris Cohen for captain.