Arsène Wenger has moved to protect Jack Wilshere’s development, in counter-balancing his run of indifferent form by letting the 17-year-old go ‘back-to-basics’.
Wilshere’s performances have taken a dip since Arsenal’s elimination from the Carling Cup at the hands of Burnley in December, and Wenger has resisted the temptation to use Jack in recent Premiership and Champions League fixtures. Indeed, the Hitchin born winger has only made the bench once in the last 6 first team encounters.
Fran Mérida and Amaury Bischoff are rapidly becoming the preferred options as the ‘spare’ midfielder, and both now regularly train with Arsène’s usual squad.
The slump took prominence during the F.A Youth Cup games, where Wilshere was marked out of the 3-1 win against Wolves, and then subbed off during the 4-0 romp over Sunderland. Jack seemed frustrated with the decision, and decided to leave the ground early with his watching parents rather than stay and travel with his team mates. Steve Bould hinted that his shift wasn’t good enough after the full time whistle.
‘Wilsh’ marked his debut for England’s Under 19’s with another indifferent 90 minutes, and Wenger has used his vast knowledge to help transform his fortunes. The Frenchman will allow Reserves coach Neil Banfield to ‘look after’ the left footed maestro for final few months of the season, and attempt to draw the deadly form back out of his star man.
Dips in performances are common things for young players, but the next months are all about Jack’s character and how he bounces back.
But make no mistakes, Arsenal still have an outstanding young prospect on their hands.
Article By – J.Sanderson
He needs to develop a burst of pace to enable him to get away from the hackers. It takes him too long to get into his stride and against the top teams he doesn’t or will not get this time.
He also needs to be a bit more positive and be a bit more ambitious, rather than passing square.
give the guy a chance in the fa cup at home against surely tired burnley and we’ll see him grow as part of the family.
Dip in form or not, he still looked way better than any of the other stiffs against fulham in mid-week.
This m8 is why i read your blog cos i been wonderin what happened to boy wonder? Thanx m8. Btw this hopefully might give merida & bisch a chance . Hopefran gets his chance??
Great insight. I was worried he was falling out of favour. Really want to see Jack suceed. He has raw talent like no (English) youngster I’ve seen at Arsenal for a long time. Really want him to succede
I hope he carrys on training with the first team as imagine wat he can learn from arshavin, nasri and rosicky (when fit) in my opinion he would be learning from 3 of the best creative wingers who can play at cm aswell
I dont mind his form dipping but Wenger punishing him for poor attitude by leaving him out 1st team squad games is absolutely spot on. If true, he disrepected his teammates by leaving them and travelling back with his parent.
Young players always have ups and downs and Jack Wilshere is no different.
hmmmm, perhaps his potential was wrongly estimated?
So easy to forget that when someone is only just 17 years old they’re not fully mentally matured yet. Think back to what you were like when you were 17 and ask yourself if, given all the normal stresses of being a teenager, if you could’ve handled the pressure of being expected to break into the Arsenal first team as well. INSANE! Jack will make it he just needs to be patient with himself and keep working hard. You can do it Jack, us Gooners believe in you, just take it at your own time.
I wonder how much stick you’ll get for this? Or will all the keyboard bashers refuse to comment ? Nice site u got here JS. I saw all the stick you got when you first said that Wilshere had a dip in form….some humble pie needs to beat eaten.
Cheers guys. Nope, no abusive comments or anything, so they’ve all been published.
I think people just don’t like to hear bad things about our players, which is understandable.
He’s bee struggling with fatigue, he’s still 17, so I suppose it’s wise he moves back down for a while, and hopefully gets a run at the end of the season if we can give it to him.
I think the hype around this lad has gone over his head. I mean, he was with the under 16 just a year ago basically.. it’s a MASSIVE step to the senior squad. Maybe his body hasn’t grown fully yet, and is adapting in a way that is perfectly normal.. I mean, to come in as a little boy and train so hard and heavy, it’s a big change of scenery. He needs to have a adapting period, just like the players who comes in from other countries, like Rosicky had and Arshavin has now. I’d say, give him a year from now in the ranks with Arséne and we will have an english Cesc…
Firstly, i feel that this whole jack-is-going-down-thing is greatly exaggerated.
Second, i feel as if you, Sanderson, are at times writing shit that is officially named to the sun, or any other shit paper. Some things you write are purely great, since it cannot be found anywhere else, but sometimes it what you write appears to be pure bullshit. Therefore i dont really believe this whole jack-story is 100% true.
Third. If this is true, that he i seriously dipping in form, keep playing him. Put him on the bench anyway, it will make zero difference for the first team but it would make huge difference if he kept on training with the first team.
JS, even ramsey is going through a bad patch. Both of them need time to adapt. It is only natural that they have a bad patch. WILSHERE is still my favorite player in arsenal apart from CESC. I love him and I still feel he is one of the best prospects in the world.
He is still my favorite arsenal player.Whether on form or not.
We musnt expect too much so early on in his career. This is his first test of many, the spotlight was /is on him and he may have lost that natural freedom he has been playing with. He is a quality player and I am sure he will come through, lets not break him before he develops. Good luck Jack
I think a big thing here was – we were starting to expect no more Cesc’s (i.e. 17y/o sensations that break the first team at such a young age). With our current first team all having to wait, pretty much, till about 20 (generalisations, I know) and still rapidly improving and new signings on top of that, youngsters are going to have to work a hell of a lot harder than, say, Song did to get a place. It was looking like the next generation of youngsters would be much more akin to Barcelona were just 1 or 2 would break the first team when good enough (so 21-23) and not just through inheriting a start even if they haven’t fulfilled their potential yet (I am the first to defend people like Bendtner and Song – I think they have great futures ahead of them, but they aren’t ready yet).
With Wilshere, especially after the rapid rise from the u16s to the Carling Cup and the Real friendly, it looked like that maybe we had another Cesc situation though. We have had to deal with many disappointments since the rise of Cesc of players who get their chance before they are ready but the hype for Wilshere went into overdrive. The reality is- he may have an incredible future ahead of him, much like Bendtner or Denilson did at that age but we’ve learnt our lesson and if they are faltering at 20/21, then with Wilshere we must preach similar caution. Treat him just like another exciting youngster – obviously with a future but no pressure, stay in the reserves/on loan until you are ready. Arshavin initially being signed until Wilshere hits about 21/22 will help immeasurably take the slack and defend him from expectations (- if only we signed stopgaps for Song and co. to fully develop first) and to learn from. I believe Eboue’s contract is up in the summer, so he’ll be third choice RM and Carling Cup first choice and with the next 3 years seeing Theo make the transition to striker, it’ll be a natural progression from 3rd choice, to back-up in time for him to garner enough experience to take over from Arshavin.
Considering the mess of bringing through exciting youngsters too young en masse (i.e. our current 11), many lessons have to be learnt from the coaches and from the fans. Don’t overhype youngsters if possible, and don’t write them off either based on past experience. Give them time. Give them a couple years at back-up first. Don’t over criticise, it can kill careers (Senderos). Let them develop on their own time until they finally reach the first team, ready.
Perhaps this is why Wenger doesn’t like buying English players. They tend to have a lazy, complacent, “world owes me a living” attitude. I do hope he’s not going the same way as the likes of twats like Bentley. In fact Wilshere would do well to look at the career of this erstwhile “Arsenal star of tomorrow”. Even the fans of his “beloved” T*tt*nh*m can’t stand his attitude….
Jack is a talent no doubt but he will do himself no favours by leaving early when subbed. He looked totally out of sorts against Fulham but the rest of the team were a disgrace to the name of Arsenal. There was a ‘lets just ply out the 90 mins attitude that day’ and that is not acceptable. Some players would not have got into a Sunday pub side on that display.
hes gonna be big.fuck sake hes only 17.remember when fabregas was 17.2 years and he will be playing in the starting 11 first team.MARK MY WORDS
leave it to Arsene, because he know exactly what to do.
You really big it up. I think it’s only down to his fatigue. He started the last year in the U16, now he had to travel with the first team to Austria, then train hard and play first team matches. Don’t say it won’t make a 16 year-old tired!
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I agree with smartarse in a way. Jack played cm (not his best position) against Fulham alongside Randall and still outshone him/played on a par. In fact Mark Randall has only performed good once this season (first team or reserves), against Sheff Utd in the CC, where he was MOM IMO.
Samuel – You usually talk sense but i have to disagree this time mate. Unless something terrible happens, i can assure you Jack will be playing regular first team football a good few years before he is 21/22 although not week in, week out.
Phader – We won’t even get that with the way we’re playing right now mate. As far as i’m concerned Cesc, Theo and Tomas can’t come back quick enough. Poor Samir Nasri is being relied on far too much right now.
I like to deal with facts and so it was nice to read Arsene’s comments in yesterday’s matchday programme against Fulham. He said the following:
“Jack Wilshere has not been on the bench recenlty but that is because at his age you do not want him to be a professional bench warmer. When you have three games in a week, the players involved in the squad don’t have proper training as such becuase of the games, they don’t need more intense football and that is not good for a 17 year-old like Jack, so he is benefiting more from having proper training sessions. I try to rotate a bit and Fran Merida has been on the bench recently – that is because he has been doing very, very well. He looks really good in training and is getting stronger all the time. It just shows there is competition everywhere here – even on the bench.
“Jack is part of the FA Youth Cup squad…”
A bit of a different verison of events than yours. I am sure he’ll continue to feature in first team squads as the season progresses.
i think this is all about his mental state. when wenger promote him to first team, maybe he never expected to play for reserve again. but he still play for reserve and only play a few times for first team. he might be upset, that’s why he cannot perform consistently. with a lot of players out injured, jack might think he will get a chance but he don’t. he still young so it’s not unusual he get upset easily.
Looks to me like the truth probably lies between these two stories. AW is not going to publicly criticise Wilshere. AW also will not let players just warm the bench because that just halts their development as players. At 17, any player will experience swings in form, and will lack the stamina required for a long premiership season – far better that he goes back to the Reserves for a while where he will play and train effectively.