Yes. I think his point is that these people are no longer "Arsenal"; they no longer "sents els colors del seu club", as they say in Foreign.
For instance, we never placed any special, uncommon value on Cole's one-of-our-ownness, did we. And so on. Whereas once, it would've been enough to make him captain.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
"Scoring a goal is better than sex" - Whoever said that was sticking it to the wrong woman
Off-topic, I would argue that not enough value is placed on Cole generally. For my money, he's the one English player of the last 20 years who would consistently have been there or thereabouts in a World XI. The fact that he was a gobshíte tends to obscure his excellence as a player.