Isn't it directed at the club and it's wage structure more than the player? Personally my concern with Jack is that we will break him before he has the chance to really make it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
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Isn't it directed at the club and it's wage structure more than the player? Personally my concern with Jack is that we will break him before he has the chance to really make it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Yep, any half decent ambitious player that wants to win things leaves here. Why on earth would they stay when we never improve the team and have a number of bonkers "self-created policies".Quote:
Originally Posted by Grebbo
He's gone next summerQuote:
Ever since Jack Wilshere left the field after just seven minutes of Arsenal’s pre-season match against New York Red Bulls in July 2011, having picked up a knock that initial scans showed to be a ‘minor ankle injury’, he has been locked in a battle against his own body.
It was a battle he thought he’d won when, 15 months after the initial injury – eventually diagnosed as a stress fracture – he was back in an Arsenal shirt and making his first senior appearance for the club in 524 days. But it turned out to be little more than a ceasefire. By the end of last season, Wilshere was under the surgeon’s knife again – and forced into combat once more.
He’s four weeks into pre-season when Sport meets him at the Luton Hoo Hotel – a vast estate on the outskirts of Hertfordshire, where the serving of high tea proves to be a useful distraction from the arrival of one of the hottest properties in English football. Dressed casually in jeans and a plain white tee, Wilshere strolls through the lounge area attracting little more than a lingering look from guests with more pressing matters on their minds: jam then cream on the scone, or cream then jam? One can never quite decide.
His day so far has consisted of a single training session – something for which the midfielder is thankful, because it comes sandwiched between two days of gruelling double sessions that combine fitness work and agility drills with more technical exercises. Not that Wilshere is complaining.
“It’s the first time I’ve had a full pre-season in two years,” he says. “We’ve done a lot of strength and power training, and I finally feel like I’m up to speed with everyone else. I’m feeling ready.”
And the ankle? Wilshere glances down at the right leg that has been so troublesome for the past two years. “It was bothering me towards the end of last season, when I was on the bench a bit,” he says. “I needed to get a run of games for me to feel better, and I just couldn’t get going. But I had an operation at the start of this summer, to take out the screws I had put in and replace them with screws that don’t have a head, so it should hopefully be better now. For good.”
Frustration has been the buzzword for Arsenal supporters unhappy with the team’s inconsistent form in recent seasons, but it’s one that Wilshere can relate to on a very personal level, too.
“The original injury feels like it was a really long time ago,” he explains. “Because when you’re injured and you’re not doing what you love, it’s horrible and the time just drags. It was the first time I had to have surgery on an injury, too. So when I heard I needed an operation, it felt like it was really serious. And I suppose it was.
“Going through that whole process of rehabilitation and physio work was really eye-opening, though. Before, you might have seen injured players in the gym and thought: ‘Oh, they’re not working that hard’. But it makes you realise that isn’t true. You have to work hard, keep your fitness up and do the work the physios set you... otherwise you won’t come back as strong.”
The birth of his son Archie came just three days after Wilshere’s surgery for the initial injury, in September 2011. It was, he says, the perfect distraction from the monotony of the repetitive rehab regime: ice, sit, ice, sit. Repeat ad nauseam.
“He sort of kept me going,” says Wilshere, a warm smile inevitably appearing as he talks about his son. “When I was unable to do things and had all that time off, instead of sitting there doing nothing, I was with my son and could get to know him a bit. So many footballers are away when their kids are born, so I was lucky in that sense. Does he take after me?
"People do say he’s a bit like me in the way he walks and runs, even though he’s not quite two yet. And he’s kicking a ball now – but he’s kicking with his right foot, which is a bit different. The temper tantrums have just started as well, so he can get angry easily. But it’s never for very long.”
The rehab process is one most players have to endure at some point during their careers – and fathering a child isn’t the right solution for everyone – but Wilshere is one of the unfortunate few for whom the journey from operating room to dressing room has involved more detours, delays and random red lights than a trip on the London Underground.
“It’s hard, especially when, like me, you have a few setbacks,” he admits. “They’re probably the worst thing you can have. You work towards a target, and then all of a sudden you’re out for longer.
“You’re seeing all the boys going out to train and it’s just so frustrating. Is it hard to stay motivated? Sometimes, but you just have to get your head down and do it, because if you don’t you’re not going to come back as strong.”
Wilshere’s last few words begin to reveal the fear that gnawed away at him throughout his time on the sidelines – one that must enter the brain of every injured player at one stage of their rehab: will I ever be the same player again?
“I never ever questioned whether I would play football again – I always knew I would,” he says. “But you do question whether you’re going to come back to the same level you were at when you left. The game is always moving forward – it’s getting quicker, and the players are getting more aggressive.
“So when you’re out of the game for as long as I was, you start to question that. And that’s the tough bit, you know, because you can see other players getting better and better while you’re stuck in the gym. All you want is to be out there on the pitch improving, but you can’t. Mentally it’s really hard, especially when you’re 18, 19 or 20 years old. Because that’s when you’re learning the game and always improving. So to miss out on so much of that time was tough.”
But Wilshere has spent much of his young life dreaming of playing for Arsenal – ever since he joined the club’s academy as a fiercely determined nine-year-old in October 2001 and set his sights on joining Arsčne Wenger’s squad of Invincibles. It was never something he was going to give up without one heck of a fight.
Returning to first-team action in October 2012, Wilshere was immediately thrust into another battle, as Arsenal looked to bounce back from two straight defeats. He was told by Arsene Wenger at 10.30am on the morning of the game against Queens Park Rangers that he would be in the starting XI, with the Arsenal manager reasoning: “Sometimes I think it is better that you don’t have much time to think about it when you have been out for a long time.” Wilshere emerged unscathed from 67 minutes of combative football, and the Gunners were back to winning ways thanks to a late winner from Mikel Arteta.
But, as the season progressed, the Gunners found themselves knocked out of one competition after another – and slipping further down the league table. A 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in March left Arsenal seven points behind their bitter local rivals, with many feeling the balance of power in north London had shifted away from the Emirates towards the Seven Sisters Road. Was there a feeling among the players that they had been written off too early?
“That happens every year, I think,” says Wilshere defiantly. “Even this year, I’ve been reading things like: ‘Arsenal aren’t title contenders.’ But we’ve had that for years. We feel we have a great squad, as we showed towards the end of last season, when we went 11 games unbeaten [after losing that game at Tottenham]. So if we can reproduce that form, then we have a chance. When we had to get the results, we went out there and got them. And that’s what we need to take into this season.”
There is no doubting this is a crucial season for the club, with that trophy-related statistic bound to drag along behind the team until some silverware finds its way into the Emirates trophy cupboard.
“We understand the fans’ frustration, because we care as well,” says Wilshere. “Arsenal used to be a team that won everything, you know – trophies and titles. But now we haven’t won anything for eight years, so we know what we have to do. It’s time to start producing trophies and being closer to the top of the league at the end of the season. We don’t just want to be fighting for fourth place – we want to be up there with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United. We feel we’re good enough to be there.
“Last season, we lost games in cup competitions in which we could have been there at the end. We lost against Bradford away [in the League Cup] and Blackburn at home [in the FA Cup]. We should never be losing games like that. But this year we have to get over that, grow up a bit and realise that we need a trophy – Arsenal’s too good not to be winning trophies. We’ll be in four competitions this year. We know we have to win one of them.”
While little has changed in the Arsenal bubble since the end of last season, little has remained the same among the rest of the so-called ‘big four’. The managerial departures at Manchester United, City and Chelsea leave Wenger as the longest serving manager in the country – one statistic Wilshere is hoping could give Arsenal an edge in the title race this season.
“Time will tell, but sometimes players don’t get on with new managers, or they come in and change things [which doesn’t sit well with the players],” he says. “It will be interesting to see what happens – hopefully it will mix a few things up.”
Wilshere admits to being shocked when he heard news of Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement from the game, just like the rest of the football world.
And, when it comes to the endless stream of transfer rumours that spend the summer months being angrily denied, refuted and rebuffed (before becoming reality in the days leading up to September 2), he says the players are no more enlightened than the rest of us.
“I suppose we’re a bit like the fans, we just see it on Sky Sports News or read it in the paper,” he insists. “We get excited like a fan if we see the likes of Luis Suárez – who has been mentioned – linked with the club. He’s a world-class player, so of course you get excited, and the boys would be excited, too. But who knows what will happen? Are we the last ones to know when a deal is done? I suppose we are – no-one really wants to ask the boss what’s going on.”
Wilshere laughs as he imagines how Wenger would react to a group of excited players joining the media throng in quizzing him on the possible incomings at Arsenal. But he knows that, when Arsenal kick off their season against Aston Villa at the Emirates on Saturday afternoon, the Gunners squad as it currently stands will need to be united in their determination to bring success back to the club.
“I’m ready now,” he says, fixing us with a steely stare. “And if the boss wants me to play 40 or 50 games this season, then I’m ready to do that."
Read more at http://talksport.com/football/exclus...hUR17OMH7Lg.99
Meh, good player, but nothing special.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cripps
I agree but he's questioning the holy grail of 4th place.Quote:
Originally Posted by hobson's choice
He's gone
So it's Jack's last season with us.
Will probably go on to become a superstar
:wave:
Quote:
"I want to win things with Arsenal and I want to be there in the future, but if the boss leaves then things could change," Wilshere is quoted as saying to Zapsportz.com.
"Arsenal are always in my heart and by signing a deal for the next five years shows my commitment to them and their commitment to me so at the moment everything is good.
"Arsene Wenger has been there for so many years and he's always delivered trophies.
"OK we've had a little dip in the last five or six years, but he's a great manager and people who question his ability are ridiculous.
"He's qualified for the Champions League for 16 years so I think he's the right man for the job."
Bye
Zapsportz.com
Well I'm convinced
Even if Wenger would stay for x amount of years onwards, I can't see Jackie boy staying with us if things dont improve.
Jack owes Wenger for his career, just like Vieira, Henry, Cisc and RVC.
He'll definitely be loyal and stay like they did.