The Jack Wilshere Saga by Uche
Coming off the back of our most successful transfer window in as long as I can remember, one would have thought that finally, Arsenal and Arsene Wenger will get the credit they deserve. But not so. Why doesn’t this surprise me? Manchester United spent 100 million pounds on Paul Pogba and we spent the same amount securing the services of Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi, Lucas Perez, Rob Holding, Takamu Asano and kelechi Nwakali. There is no debate about who spent their 100 million better but here we are. Instead what are we talking about? Jack Wilshere being loaned out to Bournemouth. Perfect.
Let us put this matter to bed, shall we? If Jack Wilshere wasn’t British, this loan move wouldn’t generate the amount of controversy that it has. Let us look at some facts. Contrary to what Keowon just said, Wilshere is not Arsenal’s best left footed midfielder. To say that is to claim that he is better than Ozil and Carzola and that is not true. Ozil has no equal and Carzola is in the Spanish national team. Can Wilshere get into the Spanish national team? Secondly, if we were to put Jack in our first eleven, who exactly will he displace? Francis? Absolutely not. Coquelin is our only true defensive midfielder. What about Xhaka? Not in a million years. Xhaka is class, tall, strong and commanding. Unlike Wilshere, he cannot be brushed off the ball. He is a pass master who can make both short and long passes, infact, nobody makes precise long passes better than Xhaka. We got a taste of it against Watford and he is just getting started. Perez, Alexis and Walcot will have a field day running behind defences chasing Xhaka’s long passes. Is Jack Wilshere better than Elneny? Of course not. Elneny is taller, stronger, passes better, rarely loses the ball and has the engine of a tow truck. Don’t even get me started with Ramsey because he beats Wilshere in every department. Jack is diminutive, always gets injured, constantly runs into traffic and is our most fouled player. His final ball is lacking too and he rarely scores goals.
After all these years, we finally built ourselves that fabled spine of steal consisting of a world class goalie (Peter Cech), a world class Defense ( Koscielny, Mustafi), a world class play maker (Maestro Mesut Ozil) and a soon to be world class fox in the box (Lucas Perez). That is the story of the decade as far as Arsenal transfer history is concerned but here we are here talking about Jack Wilshere.
Campbell got loaned out and he is a decent player. Chambers got loaned out too. He is not first team material. Not yet and neither is Jack. So why oh why do we have to feel that Wilshere is being maltreated by being loaned out? Can somebody please explain this to me? Unlike Walcot, Ox, Sanchez and Iwobi, Wilshere cannot play on the wings. So whose fault is it that he finds himself in this situation? For years we waited for him and the likes of Diaby to get fit and realize their potential and that hasn’t happened. And while we were waiting, he was cashing millions while smoking, getting into fights and playing scrabble with Arsenal Physios.
The competition is fiercer than ever now in the premier league and this Arsenal team has moved on. We have invested well over the years and finally built a squad that even Jack Wilshere cannot get into. That is a good thing my friends. That is a good thing. Let him go to Bournemouth and grow up. If he does, he just might be good enough for our bench. Just take a look at Manchester United’s bench. You will see the likes of Herrera, Mhikitarian and Schneiderlin sitting there and not getting games. That is what a title winning bench looks like and correct me if I am wrong but we still want to win titles, right? Peace.
Uche Edochie
Lagos – Nigeria