Jack Wilshere has admitted he was surprised by the criticism levelled at him by former England international Paul Scholes and confirmed he called the retired midfielder to talk in more depth about his apparent lack of progress at Arsenal.
Speaking on Sky Sports back in March Scholes two-footed his way through an analysis of Arsenal’s title chances before turning his critical eye in the direction of 22-year-old Wilshere.
“Jack Wilshere came on the scene and looked a top young player but he has never really gone on,” he said.
“He needs the characters like Vieira next to him to take him to the next level. He doesn’t look any better player now than he did when he was 17.”
Frustrated by the harsh words Wilshere disclosed to the Mirror yesterday that he deliberated over contacting the ex-Manchester United man before finally sourcing Scholes’ number via England coach Gary Neville.
“For the next few days after he said that, I sat down and talked to my dad and a few of the coaches here. I just wanted to hear what he thinks,” said Wilshere
“I respect him so much and I think he can make a great coach for any young player. I am a young player and he has been there and done it, so I wanted to hear what he had to say.
“We had quite a good chat. He is entitled to his opinion, I just wanted to know…
“If it had come from a less respected player, I could say, ‘What are you talking about’, but it came from Paul Scholes! So I wanted to get to the bottom of it.
“I spoke to him, he explained it a bit better and told me what he thought I should work on. For me, he’s the best English midfielder of all time.
“He was right, in a certain way. When I first burst onto the scene there was all this noise [about me] and then I got injured. I have had bad luck with injuries but I can’t keep saying I’ve been injured a lot.
“There comes a time when you stop being a kid and I think that’s what he’s referring to – ‘He’s young, he’s got all this potential, you have to start fulfilling that potential.’
“This season, I have improved a lot, scored a few more than I have in the past and got a few more assists. That side of things…
“You can keep the ball and you can look good but it’s those stats that matter. That’s what I have to build on.”
On one level you might think there was little need for Jack to rise to Scholes’ bait, on the other it demonstrates a maturity and self-awareness that bodes well for the future.
As a teenager Jack was a particularly eye-catching talent (he remains so) but put under the microscope by the media he was inevitably bigged up as something he had yet to become. Throw a couple of ridiculously lengthy injuries into the mix and naturally his development has been a little stunted, however, at the age of 22-years-old he still has over 10-years left at the top and is already a mainstay of the England World Cup set-up.
You only have to look at Aaron Ramsey’s impact this term to see that hard work and determination can quickly have the doubters back-peddling. It wouldn’t surprise Arseblog News to see Jack make a similarly emphatic return to form next year.
Jackie just dip your cock in to his misses snapper and all is said and done.
Don’t care what ginger head got to say, he should be talking to those midfield cunts at his former club that refused to make it to Europe. Big ups Jack for taking it smoothly the Gunners way!
Jack showed a bit of class there, great way to react to the criticism, totally showed Scholes up.
Scholes need to shut his mouth and worry about his former clubs demise.. maybe pass on a few of his top tips to Cleverly and Carrick, and to other shocking players they have milling around at that place..
Willpower
I hope he can be our captain for years.
He fights in every single game like a lion, he loves Arsenal like Jenko. All we can do is support him and believe that he can come back after injury like Rambo did.
not just willpower
wilpower and shere determination
it’s okay
i can show myself out.
Why does it look like someone has stretched his head in that photo?
Scholes is a cunt.
Whatever he has to say is meaningless.
Fuck Scholes. Wilshere and Ramsey are going to set the EPL on fire next season!
I really love Jack’s willingness to learn – even if it’s from cunty Scholes! Including the injuries I feel the lack of midfield mentor since Fabregas’ departure has also impeded his development but now with the presence of the likes of Ozil, Cazorla, a reinvigorated Ramsey and an injury free Rosicky young Jack has full faculty of midfield teachers to learn from. Let’s hope he comes back from the World Cup fit so that he can dive into his new curriculum.
When this guy makes the step up, we’ll have one crazy midfield for the next decade.
Wilshere-Ramsey-Özil.
You know a midfield is broken as fuck when you can forget about santi cazorla being part of it!
Wilshere has tremendous potential i mean tremendous! he just needs to string a full season together without this constant niggles and injuries (i know, sounds ridiculous) but that’s how he’s/we’re really gonna know where he is at, Ramsey the lad atm is miles ahead yet they started all this together and kinda went through same shit.
Also he’s yet to find his “niche” in the team, which is worrying. Next season should be defining for him..
It’s refreshing that he didn’t get on twitter the minute he heard Scholes’ comments and tell him to eff off. I like that – it shows maturity. However, I think Scholes’ comments were plain wrong. He went from never being interviewed to suddenly being ‘rent a gob’ and simply regurgitating the same old shite about AFC, Wenger etc. His quote about AFC being a million miles away from the title was nicely batted away by AW and so was his comment about Wilshere. There’s only one thing stopping Jack and that is injuries. A 3 month spell clear of injury… Read more »
Fearless Jack
Has anyone see those dozens of Wilsheres Barca claimed to have in their ranks?
Dick Law was apparently seen outside La Masia in camouflage gear with a net, but all he’s caught so far is several butterflies and a drunk English tourist wondering where the rest of the chaps on his pub crawl went.
Fair play to Jack. I would have just left a steaming pile of my moist excrement on the doorstep of that ginger twatwaffle
not before wrapping it in newspaper, setting it alight, ringing the doorbell, and retiring to a safe watching distance, I should hope.
Hilarity ensues as Scholes attempts to stamp out his doorstep fire only to discover the squelchy present within…
Honestly who gives a crap what that dirty cheating ginger thinks? This is a man who spent his career kicking the living sh@t out of far more talented Arsenal players and benefitting form the protection of Ferguson and his corrupt refereeing connections. Yes he was quite good but let’s not make out he was some kind of English Xavi. Of course the crowning glory of his career was feigning some illness or other to ensure he was never picked for his country past the age of 30. Strangely enough, he managed to play out a career in the premiership until… Read more »
There isn’t much to be said about Wilshere’s development – everyone knows it’s been hampered by injuries. But in my opion, Wilshere has grown a fair amount without us all realising. In his breakthrough season he was brilliant, but although he had a few moments of magic in each match his main role seemed to support Fabregas and he played much like Arteta (in my view). Then he had his injury, and on his return from injury he really was far and away the best player in a team playing badly (before another injury). We failed to properly recognise that.… Read more »
As long as ‘leave arsenal and join man utd’ is not part of the conversation then i’m all good.
“If it had come from a less respected player”…..uuuuuh BURN on you michael owen!!!
My favourite quote from Owen is one that I never see mentioned anywhere:
“If it carries on raining, the pitch is only going to get wetter.”
Such insight.
I love Wilshere no less than the next Gooner, but can we please hold the ‘next captain’ thing till we have people like Per and Arteta who are clearly the captains for the immediate future? What Wilshere needs to be now is a good pupil in the presence of the likes of Cazorla and Özil. Captaincy can wait.
I’ve been saying it for ages, but until our medical and rehab system changes players like Wilshere, Ox and Walcott will not progress as they could – it’s all down to injury after injury and it’s not just a case of hard luck. Our injuries are a joke, players take a knock in a game, we get told they’ll be back in a few weeks, then low and behold they have a set back and are out for the best part of a season, time and time again. These young talented players are in danger of never reaching their true… Read more »
No problem with him wanting to learn off the ginger kid
Wilshere should also look to Ramsey(especially Rambo) and Ozil for improvements
Wilshere is brilliant. I just think he justs needs to be more selfish with his body and not fuck it up long term. When he is on his game, the guy is better than Ramsey in my opinion. Ramsey is a brilliant finisher and very energetic but Wilshere’s force of personality and play pushes teams back. When he is on the ball and running you can see his aura. I don’t know if anyone else sees this. Kind of like Hazard when he is on the top of his game, it seems like he cannot be stopped, like he is… Read more »
Better than Ramsey? This is some bullshit that needs to be ended. Listen, Ramsey is a different player to Wilshere. They play different games. Aaron’s strengths are his positional discipline, finishing, stamina and defensive nous. Jack’s is his ability to play with the ball at his feet, his aggression and dribbling. Neither is better than the other, they just need to play to their strengths and both will excel. I hate it when people try to pit Jack and Aaron against each other – we are blessed with two gifted youngsters in our midfield, both have extremely bright futures and… Read more »
What is a ‘force of personality’? How has this translated to his game this season? And you don’t think Ramsey’s play doesn’t push teams back? He actually does this very well, he presses and presses relentlessly and we missed that so much while he was out. His runs off the ball also puts immense pressure on our opposition. Rambo’s positioning must be a nightmare to defend against. What exactly are you talking about Jack being better than Aaron? Do you have any stats to back this up? Wilshere is a great prospect but let’s not romanticize the guy and big… Read more »
I’m sorry but Theo? The guys has progressed immensely. Top scorer last season with more than 20 goals. He’s usually fit and an ACL is not something our medical team can fix.
THE Ox has also progressed well….
At the end of the day he is right.its the stats that matter the most.just take a look at ramsey,there was the doubts about him when he wasnt scoring much.but out of the blue he started banging goals and realised that people arent gonna remember how well you can keep a ball or how many players you have dribbled pass before,its all about the goals.arteta and wilshere are in a similar position.holding midfielders.meaning their main job is to hold the ball.not become a striker.but becus its harder for them to score goals as a holding midfielder,ppl start to question their… Read more »
Class thing to do, nice one Jack!
(Was also kinda hoping to read you nutted him)
Perhaps it doesn’t help that the English public love to build their young talents up and then destroy them. We have done for years. We just pile more and more pressure on them and then act surprised when they buckle, and I really feel sorry for them. All of them get the “overrated” tag sooner or later because we don’t give these youngsters the support they need and subject them to ridiculous scrutiny. Andros Townsend was flavour of the month not long ago, he’s “overrated” now. At the moment it’s Ross Barkley, and already I fear for him because it’s… Read more »
Scholes did us a favour.. his attitude has been questioned at times.. i kno hes been injuried, i kno theres lot of competition for his favorite posistion and hes not good on the wing… but he seems to get in trouble off the pitch and he spends to much time on the floor moaning that players badge him off the ball… he needs to be more aggressive in his play…
Hes young im not to worried personally
Spot on. Moaning… trying to take on players on he’s own when a simple pass would’ve sufficed. Losing the ball. Chasing back and making dumb lunges. Will he realize he’s potential? Who knows. I wont be surprised if he did. Should we treat him with kid gloves? Hell no. Non- English players his age have big responsibilities in other teams, I hope he improves gradually without costing us to much points like Ramsey did before (not his fault for starting matches). How good was Owen at his age? I just think if a player is not playing well he, he… Read more »
SAF and Daily Mail said that Scholes was just clumsy in his comments due to enthusiasm but had no intent to injure Jack with his wild and brainless tackle errr… I mean commentary
Here’s the World cup Jack. Time to step up and show us. It starts here.
Jack showed pure class with how he responded to the whole thing. Scholes neglects to mention how Jack completely TERRORISED Bayern & Barca when both clubs were at their best. That shows that Jack has improved and that his potential is being realised, albeit at a slow pace, due to the injuries he’s sustained. An Injury-free world cup campaign and 14/15 season is what Jack needs to be at his world-beating best. People also critisize Jack for not scoring ‘enough’ goals, yet they let Iniesta get away with it. Instead of Scholes taking shots at Jack on Sky Sports, he… Read more »