I am not sure if this rumour is even believable considering that Jack Wilshere has hardly played for Arsenal in the last two seasons, but knowing Arsene Wenger’s fetish for keeping all his English players in the squad it wouldn’t really surprise me…
So apparently Jack is going to be with us to the end of his career whether he plays or not, and it is being reported that he has been given a five year extension and a new wage of £110,000 per week, which is going to cost the club over 30m GBP up to 2021. There were rumours in the summer that Wilshere was a major target for Manchester City as they were desperately chasing home-grown players, and just a couple of weeks ago there were reports that Wilshere had sold his house in London, perhaps in preparation for moving to pastures new…
Since Jack broke into the Arsenal first team in 2010/11 he has managed just 100 League appearances (including as sub) so the reasoning behind his new contract is a bit of a mystery, but then again, Abou Diaby managed to stay at the club for nine years despite averaging only 10 appearances a season!
As we all know Jack was cruelly re-injured in training just a couple of days before the Community Shield game against Chelsea at the start of the season, and since then we have been promised his return in the New Year. Wenger’s latest forecast came on January the 4th when Le Prof said: “I maintain what I said that Jack could make it back for February. He will be available again. Considering you play the Euros on June 10, that is a long way.”
In the prematch conference for this weekend’s game, Wenger didn’t even mention Wilshere although Coquelin, Rosicky and Welbeck were given a new forecast. Maybe February is also looking a bit hopeful for Wilshere’s return…