A lot of Arsenal fans and members of the football media in general were talking about our England international midfielder Jack Wilshere at this point last year and suggesting that he was facing a very important and perhaps pivotal season in his football career.
Wilshere had hardly featured for England at the World Cup finals in Brazil (so at least he avoided most of the blame for that disaster) but he had been pictured smoking again and there was a lot of criticism of him flying around, such as the scathing attack aimed at him by Paul Scholes.
Even those that were not really on his back were wondering whether his seemingly never ending injury problems would mean that he never fulfilled his potential and just when he was starting to show good form for the Gunners, that injury cure struck again.
But the fact that it was an unavoidable injury from a foul did not raise further questions about him being injury prone. So a very strong end of the season for Arsenal and England and then a good pre-season so far is just what he needed. And now Arsene Wenger just wants him to have the next six months with no more injury problems so that he can really prove himself once more and start to show just how good he can be.
Arsenal.com quote the Frenchman as saying, “He’s a top-class player with a top-class potential. No matter how good you are in life, you need to have a consistent presence at the top.
“Today, what top-level sport doesn’t suffer is to be in and out because it’s too demanding physically [to stay in].
“What you wish for Jack is that he can compete now for six months without any problem, or for a year without any problem, and then you will see the player we all know he is.”
To be honest, I think that a lot of people have forgotten what Jack can do and have almost given up on him, but will this season finally be the one where he redeems himself?