Frank Lee
Jack Wilshere completed his first 90 minutes for Bournemouth last weekend, ironically against Spurs. The game finished goalless, with the loan star tidy, but not dominant, still seemingly feeling his way back into the intensity of Premier League football. Between December 2014 and the end of last season, the player made a total of two league starts for Arsenal, and five substitute appearances, due to long term injuries. I don’t know if the player’s wages are the subject of an insurance policy in the event of injury, but certainly, he was being well paid while unavailable for selection, whether or not Arsenal were picking up the tab.
More significantly, his time out, an ongoing issue even before the end of 2014, has meant that he could not be the fulcrum of the team that he has been expected to be when he burst into the first team back in 2010.
So this season, after making two substitute appearances for Arsenal, a loan deal was arranged with Bournemouth. The south coast club are covering Wilshere’s wages and paying Arsenal a £2 million loan fee for the player. Although their ground has a very modest capacity, matchday income is less of a factor these days. With broadcast income and the deal they have with shirt sponsors Mansion Group, the Gibraltar based company that runs online gaming sites such as SlotsHeaven, they can easily afford to cover the cost of Wilshere for a season, and indeed buy him outright should Arsenal decide not to renew his contract next summer, assuming Eddie Howe’s side remain in the top flight.
The South Coast club would seem a good fit for Wilshere, with their emphasis on passing football not dissimilar to Arsenal’s. More importantly, Wilshere is not competing for a starting place – his status means he will be in the first eleven unless his form drops dramatically, or horror of horrors, he picks up an injury. Eddie Howe is playing him as a classic number 10 in the Ozil position. It is ironic that back at Arsenal, Ozil covets Wilshere’s number ten shirt number, and yet at Bournemouth, the player is wearing the number 32.
Playing in the hole, Wilshere is in the ideal position to utilise his ability to play short sharp penetrative passes, and arguably less likely to get into the kind of challenges that have seen him injured in the past. However, it possibly negates his ability to drive the team forward from deep, a role in which he was preferred by the last two England managers he played under – Capello and Hodgson. Ultimately though, the spell at Bournemouth is rally about the player proving he can remain fit for a whole season, and it will be enlightening if he reveals the way he is being handled is any different to his treatment at Arsenal, where questions have been asked about the medical side of things for some time.
Form wise, it is taking time for him to have real influence. It’s a long road back and in terms of his influence in the Bournemouth team, so far it has been relatively unremarkable. Match fitness is surely an issue, given how long it is since he has regularly played 90 minutes. So far this season, there has been an element of kid gloves in the use of Wilshere, evidenced by his not completing a full game until last weekend. In the red and black of the south coast club, he has so far performed as a tidy linkman, without looking anything like the player who excited us all as a 17 year old. Perhaps that will come.
One also suspects he may be enjoying the social side of club football a little more with his current colleagues, with more straightforward English lad types than the continental sophistication and Latin leanings at London Colney. Although there is a British element in the squad, one can envisage, under Wenger, that japes are kept to a minimum, the kind of thing that actually creates a stronger team bond in the right environment. Who knows whether or not there is more of that under Eddie Howe, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise given the cultural diversity of the Arsenal squad.
Aside from the injury factor, and the wealth of alternative options (Wenger has bought two central midfielders in 2016), perhaps the manager’s disapproval of the way Wilshere spends some of his free time (evidenced by some of the press coverage showing the player in nightclubs and smoking cigars in Las Vegas) has also gradually meant a loss of faith in the commitment of the player to do things the way Wenger prefers. Whether or not the season on the south coast is actually an extended shop window for a future sale time will tell, but there seems no doubt that if Arsene Wenger has decided Wilshere is not going to be the player he had hoped he will get far more exposure in another side than he would have remaining in the Arsenal first team squad.
There is though a chink of light for Wilshere lovers. Santi Cazorla is now at the stage where he will be signing year by year deals. If he chooses to return to Spain, a gap opens for Jack, assuming he proves he can influence matches the way Cazorla can in his time under Eddie Howe. It’s a vital season for Wilshere on his comeback trail, and many will hope a successful one if it means he can return to north London in the summer of 2017 and play the role in Arsenal’s future that we all took for granted a few years ago.
