Arsenal starlet Jack Wilshere has been heaped with praise during his rise to stardom, but nobody has quite gone as far as Philippe Auclair, with the London based Music Producer turned Journalist describing the 16-year-old as ‘Astonishing’.
In a highly charged interview with our friends over at Gooner Talk, Auclair speaks of the moments where he first watched Wilshere, that infamous challenge with Michel Salgado, and what qualities Jack possess.
“Wilshere is, of course, phenomenal. Even Steve McLaren or Sam Allardyce would see that. I’d seen him in a couple of reserve games last year, but what really made me go (gasp) was his performance against Real Madrid at the Emirates Cup, and that big bang moment with Salgado, who is one tough customer.”
“I was expecting the stretcher to be brought on. But young Jack got up before Salgado! What a statement!. His balance is magnificent, he reads the game astonishingly well for one so young, and knows when to go for the simple sideways pass. Never does he look downwards. There’s something of Rooney in him too. This ‘don’t mess with me’ look – I love it.”
“I have no doubt whatsoever that he’s the greatest natural talent we’ve had on this island.”
He continued by speaking about other members of the Carling Cup squad, touching on the emergence of the central midfield pairing of Aaron Ramsey and Mark Randall.
“Ramsey looks very, very promising, but will have to learn to take fewer touches. Randall was magnificent against Sheffield United: positioning, tackling, distribution, he had an almost perfect game, which I don’t think most people realised at the time.”
Auclair finished with brief words on goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, left back Kieran Gibbs and striker Jay Simpson, before summing up the overall feeling towards the youngsters.
“Fabianski looks the business in goal, and Gibbs has huge potential, provided he doesn’t rely too much on his speed to re-position himself; Clichy had a similar ‘problem’, but has overcome it.”
“Simpson will make a fine pro, but maybe not at Arsenal. All in all, a tremendous crop of youngsters, by far the best in the country.”
You can catch the whole of the second part of the interview over at Gooner-Talk later today, or the first part Here.
Article By – J.Sanderson
denilson can’t do the job flamini did last season, so wenger thought he would bring in an additional player to help out with the defence but that significantly impairs our attacking play. Song and Denilson are good players but Song is more of a defender these days while Denilson is more of a fabregas than flamini. I wonder if it is time to throw ramsey in. he has good work rate, he is fairly quick and he is a little bit like flamini.
and i am surprised wenger would play with 4-3-3 instead of 4-5-1. yes i understand that we have too much options upfront but he should have the guts to do what’s best for the team, not what’s best to please the team.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/article39039.ece
Interesting comments about Randall’s performance. I find his little jibe at McClown & Allardyce quite funny
He’s write about everything. Quite a coup by Gooner Chris.
Lansbury looks like he might actually be going on loan.
Who the hell is he though?
He is a talented music producer, Gooner, and a journalist for France Football.
The greatest natural talent we have had on this island Lol, what a stupid staitment to make dont get me wrong Jack Wilshere is a great talent and is one of the best in Europe for his age group but technicaly he is no better than his England U17’s team mate John Bostock and he is not better than say Wayne Rooney was at 16 years old IMO
Wrong. For once this kid really is worth every single ounce of hype.
He is not the best player we have ever had in England has that French idiot ever heard of Bobby Charlton, Duncan Edwards, Paul Gascoigne, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Moore, Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Alan Ball, Martin Peters etc etc and to make such a claim about a 16 year old kid no matter how much potential Jack Wilshere has he has done nothing in the game yet to warrent such talk
Kent Paul, you are comparing those players that you mentioned to Wilshere in terms of what they achieved in football by the time that they finished playing football. BUT Auclair is talking about the most talented not who acheived the most so he does have a point. Also Rooney had a distinct advantage at 16 because of his size particularly against dirty old professional defenders but if talent is compared for those 2, Wilshere is just as talented if not more talented. All his technical skills are there for everyone to see movement, awareness, decision-making, 1st touch, skills, vision, improvisation/imagination, dribbling but his passing range needs improving
Kent Paul…LOL
You don’t know how to read an article do you. In this guy’s opinion, he feels Wilshere is the greatest natural talent in England…he’s talking about potential here.
Jack Wilshere is no better than John Bostock technicaly
“Jack Wilshere is no better than John Bostock technicaly”
Having never seen Bostock play i cnt comment on the truth in that comment, but Rooney wasnt the most obviously technically gifted player when he was 16-17. He was pacey, powerful and seemed to do the right thing at the right time. Wilshire is much the same, often he just does exactly the right thing at the same time, be is taking on a defender, making a short pass or a defence splitting throu ball, having a crack on goal or making a run. Yea there are players of his age that individually are better at one of those skills, but hes the only one ive seen hes basically good at everything (except heading…and tackling).