Jack Wilshere is Arsenal’s lone England representative at this summers Euro2016 tournament in France, and he is very lucky to be there considering he has only started one game for the Gunners all season. He is obviously held in high regard by Roy Hodgson on his previous form for the Three Lions, but now he has to prove that the manager’s confidence has not been misplaced.
The interesting thing is that, like Ozil and Sanchez, our Jack also has just two years left on his current contract and will expect negotiations on an extension to begin when the new season begins. The big difference is that our two superstars will be bargaining from a position of strength after two solid seasons for the Gunners, whereas Wilshere will be aiming to get a Walcott-sized paycheck mostly based on previous reputation alone. So this makes the Euros even more important for the 25 year-old Englishman.
Not only that, but he will have to be extra special for Wenger, because Le Prof will be wondering if he has room for Jack considering the new competition from Granit Xhaka, the returning Cazorla, Coquelin, El Neny and Wenger’s favourite Aaron Ramsey all vying for the two places on offer in the starting line-up.
So Wenger may be wondering if it is worth giving Wilshere a pay hike, when he may spend most of his time on the bench (or back in the treatment room) especially after Le Prof’s experience with Walcott in the campaign just ended. Perhaps Jack himself may be thinking that he will need to move to another club (like Man City?) to not only get a bigger pay rise, but also to get more time on the pitch.
Wilshere himself hinted that this competition could be an important shop window this summer when he told Arsenal.com: “Every single Premier League manager will be watching every single Premier League footballer [at the Euros],”
“Arsène Wenger will be watching so it is down to me to show what I can do.”
So the pressure is on Jack to perform, and there may be much more at stake for him than just trying to win the trophy for his country. He feels that he is ready for the challenge ahead. “I feel fit and ready,” he said. “I said that when Roy first named his 26-man squad. I said I was ready to be in it. If I didn’t feel like I was ready to be in the squad, I would have said so to the manager and the staff.
“I had been training before [the Manchester City game] for six or seven weeks, so I was desperate to get on to the pitch. It probably was the moment I thought I was ready.”
I hope you are Jack, because I have the feeling you are playing for your future. You are no longer the up-and-coming promising youngster. You have to prove you are the finished product right now.
Good luck with that!
Darren
Jack is 24 not 25, but I hope we keep him. If he can remain injury free (easier said than done – especially for him) he can still be the player we thought he’d be, we always see glimpses but then he gets injured. Regardless, he as Arsenal in his blood.
Jack will get a new contract regardless. It has never stopped Wenger from giving new contracts to players who spend most of their career in the treatment room.
He really needs to concentrate on keeping fit, there is only so much a club can put up with, and we put up with more than most. He can become an important player for us, but he needs to start reading his own body language better. He should know by now, when to ease up a little, when to just take a rest, he will have no-one to blame but himself. Really hope he turns it round, I hope this Euros is the beginning of Jacks career taking off. Hopefully this position he plays in for England will help him become a more rounded player, it couldn’t hurt. He looked good when he came on there at the end, so I think a fit Jack could have allot to offer, time is running short though.
No idea ..what I do know is if fit he is a different quality from Ramsey which is why he has been on pep’s radar for a while and Ramsey is a barca player only in his own mind and that of too many deluded fans on this site …. We need to sell him and the whippet and either Campbell or ox to whoever is willing to take and fund a quality right attacking option and a decent centre back if wenger can’t trust chambers … Midfield covered now .. So with that option can look forward to challenging next season
Mikhtarian #….sell theo and Campbell…bring in mikhtarian
You don’t sell a player like Wilshere at 24 injury prone or not, 29 or 30 maybe and that’s if there ain’t any signs of hope moving forward. RVP was injured for most of his time with us but when he came good, boy! Was he awesome? I still insist if we had kept him that season, we would have won the title and not Man. U.
Don’t worry I’m sure he is happy with that 90k a week just like Theo with 140k a week. One thing Mourinho is right about, though I hate him, is that Ramsey and Wllshere have no more excuses. They were there when Nasri, Fabregas and Van Persie came through the team, they should be the leaders of the team by now, even Walcott. Yet they are so predictable in what they do during games now.
People excuse Ramsey for being bad by him being a workhorse, but fact of the matter is that Özil outruns him by miles by the end of the season. Ramsey is obsolete in Arsenal imo. Only Elneny is lower on the ranking, but he fits in with other players better than Ramsey who desperately tries to get back to his glorious 2013 autumn period. Wilshere has the talent, but ruins himself with injuries.
Jack not only play for us, he is one of us: a true gooner! Unless he asks to leave, we should not even contemplate pushing him out. If we want to balance our budget, there are plenty of guys to show the door. Ramsey, Ox, Walcott and some others. But not Jack, there will come a time when the injuries will desert Jack and he will dazzle for us!
He doesn’t even appear in many home games as a spectator whilst his injured.
Arteta appeared more often than not when he was injured. Now who is the true gooner?
I’m guessing you have cameras installed all around the Emirates…monitoring spirit
Well you only have to look behind the bench. Wilshere is only there sometimes high up in the stands and the cameras always catch him when he is there, as there talk of injuries always comes up during a game.
But really though, coming to the stadium or not does not make him less of an Arsenal fan, some prefer the pub scene watching with the lads.
@incarnate
Thing is. He don’t get paid to watch from the pub with the lads. He should be with his team mates at the stadium…
Is he being paid to be at the stadium with his team mates as a spectator?
@seventti
He ain’t gettin paid to get drunk…
Hahaha.. Can you imagine the scenes when Jack and Vardy hit the town on their night’s out, together?
? ?
@FbG
But Vardy can show up hungover and play the next day…
Thats true!… he has already admitted that he drinks every day!
I can already imagine Jack and Vardy singing in a drunken state. … on their night’s out!
?” Bad Boy’s .. Bad Boy’s.. what you gonna do?”
And you know the rest…..
When they come. .. to a club, near You! ??
Yes let him eat the huge wages of 90k a week for nothing. These are the luxury offered to mediocre players by Wenger.
More like he is playing for his footballing life!
Jack should stay, I believe he will definitely come good when he overcomes his injury worries. We should get rid of Walcot, Ramsey and Ox. And use the proceeds to acquire a right winger and a CB.
Yes I agree. Theo,cambell,ramsey should all be sold. Get mikhtarian and a cb
One minute some of you guys are all about “how ruthless AW should get” and “we need to play more quick counter/attacking football” or “We need to get rid of injury prone deadwood” and “it’s going to get tougher with the new managers coming into certain teams”. Then you go against all that by saying that “injury prone, no dribbling, no defending”Jack should be a part of a squad that has to up their game next season in order to stay in contention…
We just got Xhaka, might be getting Vardy and Mkhitaryan. There’s Ozil, Sanchez, Santi, Le Coq, Elneny and Campbell. Who of these is Jack going to bump from their positions? Even if he’s fit.
Jack needs to adjust his style of play, if he’s ever going to play more than 3/5 games a season. But he won’t. Stop kiddin yourselves. Jack is through…
@ NY_GUNNER.
This Goldfish syndrome is spreading fast on here, mate ? I’m not sure if it has anything to do with old age or young damaged brains, filled with toxins! ?
Most of these folks will keep on watching the same old movie, (over and over again) and half way through they will still be wondering how it will end! ?
Let me spoil it for them, even though they will forget this after (just) two seconds. … “Jack Wheelchairrrr will return to Arsenal’s physio room, before the new season kicks off”
I hope that City buy him, during the Euro’s! ?
**OT…
In the previous article about formation,where I the players decided to have a meeting and change our style against mancity and Manu at home…some were asking me what about the other games that he won…(NY gunner aka AKB)and some other dude I don’t really know here said I am a child..
Well, I maintain my stance which is Wenger still doesn’t win enough big games and high pressured ones…
I want NY gunner to remind when last we have won chelsea in the league, Soton at St marys…
Swansea even beat us at home when we were supposed to win..I could go on on like that..
So my point remain that wenger needs to change his tactics more in the EPL for us to have a chance…he has to respect the opposition and know when to attack and play on the counter..
If the players haven’t decided to park the bus against City,we would have lost and also the Man U game when we won the players held a meeting too…
In the big games/high pressured games,Wenger MUST upgrade his tactics,if not,same story
@goonerboy
First off. You were the one who tried making the point by highlighting those 2 matches where the players supposedly took the initiative and played their own way, contrary to AW’s tactics. I only asked, why didn’t they do so in the ones we lost. Or even for all the others we won for that matter…
@NY..
I was simply talking about the BIG games and the HIGH pressured games.(As in games we were expected to win after Leicester have lost or drawn)we etiher end up losing or drawing too..
And mind you, the players CANNOT always do it their way!
He won’t show anything with England. They will be out in last 16 or quarterfinal at best.
@HA559
And he’ll be crocked for the rest of the season…But still want a new contract.
Why are we dead set on getting Wilshere off the books? Rosicky was in his 30’s but was always injured but we kept him around in the hope that he might get over his injury problems.
A few years back wiltshire was a real favourite of the fans and seen as a future England star and captain. Before his injury he had four consecutive man of the match awards for England.
Then there were the adverse comments by Paul Scholes saying that jack had not progressed as he shoud. I do not think scholes was having a cheap dig at arsenal, he had plenty of adverse comments to make about some manu players as well, and his comments to me were sound and genuine. Jack actually telephoned scholes for some explaination/advice.
Personally I think that the medical staff need to earn their money and say how likely it is that jack can stay reasonably injury free. If jack is faced with years of playing for short periods between long injury breaks then we should sell him. Does not matter that he goes to a rival, if they will pay the transfer fee and his huge wages then it is a drain on their resources for little return. To manc this is probably not a problem, they are used to homegrown players on the bench or in the reserves, jack would be a better proposition because he would occassionally play for the first team when fit.
On the other hand, if it is likely that we will get a decent amount of playing time out of him then we should offer him a new contract. He is a class player but obviously needs game time to be at his best.