The talk of the town the last few days has been Jack Wilshere.
I have always felt Wilshere got a bit of a bad deal as he was coming up through Arsenal. He was labelled a bit of a chav purely because he was white working class.
This was an unfair label as whenever he was interviewed playing for Arsenal or England, he came across very well. Clearly he knows the game, speaks well and has been very well behaved.
Yes, there was a few incidents in his adolescent years. Photo’d in nightclubs smoking when out injured, the odd scuffle. But he was still a teenager back then.
What has been obvious for years is that he is a loving father and a good man.
His interview with David Ornstein for The Athletic highlighted this further.
For those who have not seen it he opens up about injuries, his regret on leaving Arsenal and his family. It is well worth watching.
The response from the likes of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe has also been telling.
Prior to Wilshere, Arsenal had not developed a home grown Englishman for over a decade – Ashley Cole being the last to properly make it at Arsenal.
Between Cole and Wilshere, the club developed a lot of youngsters but most were foreign lads bought in between 15 and 18. They were not proper home-grown.
Wilshere became the first in over a decade and, perhaps even more importantly, the first since Arsenal took over the Hale End site.
Both Smith Rowe and Saka have spoken about how Wilshere becoming an important first team player transformed Hale End. That they realised that you cold go from being at Arsenal from 8 or 9 and make it to the first team. That it was possible.
So this interview has started a debate.
Should Arsenal re-sign Wilshere.
There is plenty in the camp of “he is a fantastic player, would be an improvement on Elneny. Give him a pay as you play deal”.
I always laugh when fans talk about “pay as you play” deals like it regularly happens in professional football. It hardly ever happens. If at all.
Then there are plenty, and I am probably in this camp, that think “thanks for the memories but that ship has passed”.
Wilshere talks about how he has been injury free since January 2020. But we have heard this before.
I remember in an interview as an Arsenal player he said had been injury free for the last 6 months of his contract. He then went to West Ham and proceeded to have 3 injury plagued seasons with them.
Wilshere will sadly never be injury free. He might get fit, but he will always break down once game intensity hits.
Last season he played for Bournemouth for the second half of the season, but was released following the end of his 6 month deal. What do they know that no one else does?
My feeling with Wilshere is you have people thinking with the heart or head.
The heart thinkers see the talented guy who dominated the midfield against Barcelona over a decade ago who is Arsenal through and through. The head thinkers see a guy who will never remain fit enough to have a serious impact.
Arsenal should reach out to Wilshere. Offer him the chance to use our training facilities to get and remain fit. We have a history of doing this with the likes of Matthieu Flamini and Jérémie Aliadière.
At the same time we should also offer him an opportunity to do his coaching badges.
Wilshere turns 30 in January. He will not be the first footballer to retire early due to injury and go into coaching. And I think this is best for him if he still has a passion to be involved in football.
This route would be much better for Wilshere’s own mental health.
It is tough constantly going through the process of getting fit, only to get injured again.
He talks in the interview about his son asking why he does not play anymore. Well he can reinvent himself as “Wilshere the Arsenal coach” rather than “Wilshere the footballer with no club”.
I hope Arsenal help Wilshere out, but not with a contract for playing.
Go take his badges, coach at Hale End. Progress through the ranks and one day Wilshere might become Arsenal manager.
With Ben White our oldest signing, Arsenal have returned to securing bright young talent rather than those players nearing the end of their career.
In recent years, this is the 3rd “project youth” we have embarked on. But what happened to the previous generations?
The Foreign Legion
In the mid 00s, Arsene Wenger and his scouting team cast the net wide to bring in some of the brightest young talents from across Europe.
Cesc Fabregas (15 when signed) was the jewel in the crown and he was joined by Abou Diaby, (19), Philippe Senderos (18), Robin van Persie (21), Denilson (18), Mathieu Flamini (20), Alex Song (18), Gael Clichy (17), Emmanuel Adebayor (22), Nicklas Bendtner(17), Emmanuel Eboue (21) and the sole Englishman Theo Walcott (16).
This group of players underachieved at Arsenalbut the majority when on to have successful careers elsewhere.
The 2007/08 season was when this group of youngsters peaked.
The summer of 2007 saw senior players Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg leave. That left just Jens Lehmann, Kolo Toure and Gilberto Silva as the last remaining men who had a serious impact on the invincibles just 3 seasons earlier.
The baton was passed from that great side onto the youngsters, and they came so close to greatness.
The young team became the first to reach 60 points in February, after winning 3–1 against Manchester City; Wenger described the feat as “phenomenal”.
Manchester City’s defeat of Manchester United the following week meant a 2–0 win at home to Blackburn Rovers put Arsenal five points clear in first spot, with 12 matches to play.
And then it all came tumbling down.
The team faces Birmingham at St Andrews. The infamous game where Eduardo suffered that horrific injury following a horrendous fouls by Martin Taylor.
Arsenal then came behind to go 2-1 up as the game entered injury time. Clichy then proceeded to pass the ball to no one within his own box, and then bring down his opponent. Penalty. 2-2.
Arsenal would draw 3 and lose 1 of their next 4 games, a 5 game run without a win which would see Arsenal drop from 1st to 3rd; a position we would never recover from.
We ended up the season 4 points behind Manchester United who would go on to win 4 of the next 6 league titles.
With the age of our side, that success could have been ours had the team not capitulated against Birmingham. The togetherness of the side never recovered from William Gallas sulking in the centre circle.
Over the next couple of years the team struggled for success. The lowest point coming in 2011 once again against Birmingham City.
The side were clear favourites for the League Cup Final but proceeded to concede in the 89th minute. A disastrous goal of our own making.
That defeat seemed to make a turning point for many of the young players.
Instead of staying to fight together, they were tempted away by instant success and wealth elsewhere.
In the summer of 2011, Clichy went to Man City and was quickly joined by Samir Nasri. Cesc Fabregas returned to Barceona. A year later Song joined Cesc at Barcelona and van Persie moved to Manchester United.
A group of some of the most talented young players in world football had spent half a decade together ad failed to win a trophy.
The side began being built following the exodus of players after the Champions League final. 2 years later we nearly won the league. 6 years after that defeat to Barcelona, project youth was over and the youngsters who were hoped would take us to glory were now men leading other clubs to trophies.
Everytime one of them lifted a trophy it made the 8 years of no silverware even more painful.
The British Core
As the foreign legion of young players broke up, there was new young hope.
One of the issues highlighted with bringing in so many young, talented players from abroad was none of them had any real loyalty to The Arsenal.
When you are getting teenagers to depart the clubs they have grown up playing for and supported, you almost install disloyalty in them.
Having learned from this, the British Core rose.
Led by Jack Wilshere, the most naturally gifted youngster to come through our academy in decades, the future was bright, the future was British.
In December 2012, Wenger thought he had found the answer to Arsenal’s lack of success.
Wenger stood beaming like a proud father behind Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Ramsey, Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as they all signed new long term deals.
Throw in Theo Walcott who was still just 23 at the time and the core of the team was now British.
Gone were the days of Arsenal not having an Brit in the side. Moving forward half the team was going to be British. And it was exciting.
The summer of 2013 saw a new kit launch and the British core was very much part of it; with all 6 members of the side front and centre of Puma’s campaign.
18 months after they had all signed their new contracts; we had won our first trophy since 2005 winning the 2014 FA Cup.
But that Final winning side contained just 2 of the 6 British core.
Aaron Ramsey and Kieran Gibbs we’re the only two members to start, with Jack Wilshere on the bench.
Both made significant contributions during the game with Gibbs heading off the line at 2-0 down and Ramsey grabbing the winner.
Injuries had curtailed must of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott’s season and both missed the final due to injury.
And this was the story of the British Core. They all struggled throughout their Arsenal career with injury.
Ramsey, following the assault by Ryan Shawcross, was always picking up niggling injuries; whilst Wilshere had chronic ankle problems.
Walcott had issues with both shoulders that led him to miss a lot of football and Oxlade-Chamberlain’s entire career at Arsenal and later Liverpool would be a story of getting fit, playing half a dozen games and then breaking down again.
Gibbs also had his issues and as for Jenkinson, his heart was in the right place but he was never quite good enough.
Arsenal would also win the 2015 FA Cup; this time with Walcott and Ramsey in the starting XI and Gibbs, Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the bench.
By the time the 2017 FA Cup final came around, Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding had been added to the British core, with Hector Bellerin an honorary member.
Holding, Bellerin, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Welbeck would al start that final, With Walcott and Iwobi on the bench.
Chambers had found himself out on loan, whilst Wilshere was loaned to Bournemouth as he recovered from another set back. Gibbs was also out injured.
Following that victory; the original 6 members of the British core would begin departing.
Gibbs joined WBA, Oxlade-Chamberlain Liverpool and Walcott Everton.
In 2018 Wilshere would join West Ham and 12 months later Ramsey left on a free to Juventus.
Jenkinson would be the last of the 6 to leave the club – joining Nottingham Forest in August 2019.
Unlike the foreign legion that proceeded them, the British core did not really go on to much success.
Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey won medals, but they contributed very little to their sides success, whilst the rest slide down the leagues.
Whilst the British core were not as talented as their predecessors and did not achieve as much in their career, they did achieve more with Arsenal.
3 FA Cups from 2014-2017, Walcott left with 108 goals in 397 games and Ramsey with 369 games and 2 FA Cup winning goals under his belt.
Gibbs played 230 times for the club, Wilshere 197 and Oxlade-Chamberlain 198.
However the FA Cup wins papered over a deterioration in the league. In 2016 Arsenal finished outside the top 4 for the first time in 20 years.
Project Youth Part III
So this summer Arsenal have added Ben White (23), Aaron Ramsdale (23), Martin Odegaard (22), Albert Sambi Lokonga (21) and Nuno Taveras (21) to an existing young core that includes Kieran Tierney (currently 24), Gabriel (23), Emile Smith Rowe (21), Bukayo Saka (19) and Gabriel Martinelli (21).
It is a combination of some of the best young foreign talent and some exciting young British talent.
In its previous two incarnations, the foreign legion were talented enough to dominate English football but failed to do so, whilst the British core were not quite good enough but won trophies.
Could a mixture of the two result in Arsenal returning to top 4, being a title chasing team and winning trophies along the way?
Ok, it was only West Brom. And not the West Brom that are top of the Championship scoring goals for fun.
Arsenal faced a side which was a mixture of their fringe and youth players; as is the norm for lower league clubs in cup competitions these days. But a 6-0 win is exactly what was needed and there was plenty to be taken out of the game.
Stick with the front 4
Aubameyang down the middle, Pepe right, Saka left and Odegaard in the middle.
That is the front 4 we need to play this season, all being fit and healthy.
I have said countless times, Aubameyang is wasted on the left wing.
His weakest part of his game is his passing. He creates very little from outwide, and this affects our ability to create as a team.
Stick him down the middle where he is devasting.
Yesterday he showed a proper strikers instinct in the box; on his toes ready for a rebound whilst defenders slept.
Pepe, Saka and Odegaard in behind also has a lot of creative and goal scoring balance to hit.
We all know what Saka can do.
He is a busy little bee who likes to buzz outside and inside, looking for pockets of space and to beat a man. He stretches teams.
Odegaard inside is what we have missed. Someone who will link up the play left, right and centre.
When Pepe was on the ball, Odegaard was just inside him. When Saka had it, the Norwegian was close by again. Always available to take the pass and move it on.
And then Pepe.
The Ivorian polarises fans mainly due to his price tag and his tendency to drift in and out of games. But we have seen time and time again that he can be devastating.
He might not have the creativity of the other two, but he is the better goal scorer.
The plan would be easy.
Odegaard and Saka make the play, Aubameyang draws defenders away and Pepe should almost always be open on the right.
We just need them to play more together, in those positions to click.
The blog got some criticism from people who quite frankly, just do not understand football.
The point was a midfield needs balance. A runner and a passer. A defender and an attacker. Someone that sits and someone that presses.
If we played with Bissouma and Partey, we would have 2 runners, 2 players that drive forward and press. Neither would dictate play with the ball at their feet.
Yesterday against West Brom it showed why someone like Xhaka is so important.
He dictated play from the middle of the park. 75 passes in 90 minutes; completing 93.3% of them.
Like with the front 4, Odegaard becomes so important to Xhaka. He was always an option.
Odegaard buzzing around means it is not as easy for teams to press or double up on Xhaka. Make him rush his play or force him into a mistake.
This allows Xhaka to get his head up and pick out a pass. Those wide long balls to Pepe and Saka could be devastating for us this season.
And if it gets on top, Odgaard has likely dropped deeper and is capable of picking up the ball under pressure and playing quickly to a player in space.
If we ever replace Xhaka; it needs to be someone whose strength is passing. Who can disctate play from the middle of the park.
Against WBA the Swiss man showed why that skill set is so important.
Aaron Ramsdale
Looked calm and assured. Some good saves and looked comfortable with the ball at his feet.
One cracking pass along the ground which desiccated WBA’s press and got our attacking facing their defenders was lovely.
A good debut.
The Defence
Only real negative was the defence.
Despite winning 6-0 we did give WBA some chances. Had they taken them when at 0-0 or 1-0 the game might have had a different complexion.
However it was a make shift defence with no Hector Bellerin (we will see him again?), Ben White, Gabriel, Pablo Mari or Kieran Tierney.
White and Gabriel might not be fight for the Man City game but with the international break coming up hopefully neither get selected for their respective nations.
2 weeks training together, learning each others game and hopefully we start building a solid foundation for the next half a decade.
Yes, it was just WBA and Man City will be a completely different prospect. But if you are unhappy with a 6-0 win you will never be happy.
