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Emery appoints Monreal to 'captain group' amid Koscielny controversy

  /  autty

Unai Emery has included Nacho Monreal in his group of players who will act as captain in the upcoming season.

Emery implemented five players who he decided were going to lead the squad at the beginning of last season: Laurent Koscielny, Petr Cech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka.

While Cech has retired and Ramsey has moved to Juventus , Koscielny is unlikely to play for the club again after he refused to travel on the club's pre-season tour of the USA, with the 33-year-old pushing for a move back to his native France.

Xhaka and Ozil will remain as captains and Emery has also clearly seen enough for him to believe his fellow Spaniard Monreal can make the step up.

He also announced he will also choose two more players to complete the group.

Emery said: "We are working now with the captains. They are Xhaka, Ozil and Nacho Monreal. I want to add two more and then I am going to decide the number one, two, three, four and five in the next weeks."