Unfortunately things don’t seem to have worked out for Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere in recent years.

He has failed to reach the potential his early career performances seemed to promise.

As a teenager he broke into the Gunners team and he also managed to receive regular call-ups for the England senior side.

Arsene Wenger would continually praise his talents and his star turn against a formidable Barcelona side won compliments from Pep Guardiola:

“Wilshere is a top player, and has been a big, big surprise,” 

Some even suggested earlier this year that Pep might make a move for Jack and take him to Manchester City. But that talk has since died down.

There’s no doubt that Wilshere’s progress at the Emirates has been stalled with many significant injuries.

He was loaned out last season and I think it was a make or break move for the central midfielder. His move to AFC Bournemouth was engineered to see if he could perform at his optimum level again, away from the bright lights of London.

But alas the twenty-five year old failed to really make a significant impact with the Cherries. His season ended prematurely due to yet another injury but even before that his twenty-seven English Premier League appearances with the South Coast club failed to generate much interest.

Look at Bournemouth’s summer pursuit of fellow loanee Nathan Ake from Chelsea. Eddie Howe was determined to bring him back permanently and paid a whopping £20m for his services. They haven’t rolled out the same red carpet treatment for Wilshere.

Yes Howe might be interested in signing the middle-man but isn’t willing to promise Wilshere first team football. That is a sign in itself that things didn’t go perfectly for Jack at Dean Court.

Another issue with the loan move was that it left the England international in limbo. His head was quite possibly still at Arsenal.

Everyone wanted to see the old Wilshere. The technically sound star didn’t dictate games as Howe and Wenger would have wished. Yes he’s good on the ball and wont give it away much but people want to see more from him. They want to see more key passes, runs into the box and better tackling. He didn’t show enough of those attributes last term.

In his twenty-seven league appearances he failed to register a single goal and he only contributed with two assists. That’s simply not good enough for a player of his stature and with his vision for a pass.

This week he returned to training with Arsenal as he once again looks to regain his fitness, after returning from a leg fracture injury.

His route back into the Gunners first team looks to be blocked with players like Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Granit Xhaka, Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny all in his way. If Wenger didn’t see him breaking into the starting eleven last term, then I don’t see any reason for him to change his mind this summer.

With only a year left on his current deal, I think the time could be right for Jack Wilshere to leave Arsenal and try and rebuild his career elsewhere.

A move to West Ham United has been mooted and reports suggest the player himself would favour that proposal as it would mean staying in the capital.

A move to the Hammers could represent a clean-slate for Wilshere and a permanent move away from the Gunners could get the player to refocus on developing his game. Maybe even a change in his style, he certainly needs to figure out his favoured position and then play there regularly.

I don’t think he’ll be afforded that opportunity at Arsenal and so it will be better for him to move on.

Obviously Wilshere, Wenger and the Arsenal faithful will wonder what might have been but unfortunately circumstances haven’t been kind and we might never see Jack reach his peak!

Posted on July 27th, 2017 by scott
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