Jack Wilshere says that life at Arsenal put him in a kind of comfort zone that he can no longer enjoy now that he’s playing for Bournemouth.
The 24 year old opted to spend a season on loan at the south-coast club, and for the first time since September 2014, completed 90 minutes in the Premier League as Eddie Howe’s side held Sp*rs to a 0-0 draw on Saturday.
Speaking after the game he said a change of scenery has opened his eyes a little.
Sometimes when you are at a top club and you have been at a top club for your whole career and you are playing week-in week-out it is easy to get in that comfort zone,” he said.
“For me to come down here and taste a different side of the Premier League, where you have to fight for everything, fight for every point and work as a team, it is definitely out of my comfort zone.”
His performance against Sp*rs was decent, but he still looks a long way short of his best. However, he believes getting the minutes under his belt will enable to find his form again.
“I haven’t played 90 minutes in two years,” he continued. “It’s a long time not to play 90 minutes and when you play game by game you start to get your confidence back and try more things,” he said.
“I am working hard in training but you can’t get that match fitness unless you are playing games.”
Good for him and us, will either come back stronger than he was or will find his level at Bournemouth.
As much as I agree with this comment, I also want Jack to comeback
Agreed, that’s the best outcome.
It takes stones to do what Wilshere has done by getting out to Bournemouth, and that has to be commended. Too many players do just sit in their comfort zone at the so called big clubs when they aren’t getting games and just collect their money on the bench. So good for him. I have no idea whether or not we will ever see him play for Arsenal again, but personally, I am just happy if we get to see him keep his career going whether that’s at Arsenal or not, because he will always be an Arsenal player to… Read more »
He seems like the natural deep creator that can possibly be Santi’s successor. We saw how much the team misses Santi against Boro. Hopefully he comes back from Bournemouth at his best! Good luck Jack
Respect.
Jack I love you man, but all players in all teams in this league should be fighting for every point. Anyway, hopefully when he comes back he’ll bring what he’s learnt, and add to the fighting spirit we have.
so he doesn’t fight his way to play at ARSENAL…COYG
Are you trying to impress the Daily Mail with that comment???
Ironically he may have even played against Boro. Hope he comes back strong.
Probably the only player who is a natural backup to Carzola.
Although Wilshere was not in full form, wonder given Carzola’s importance and injury record (as well as Wilshere’s own), surprised about his season long loan move. Would have been more understandable if it was 3 or 6 months.
Xhaka! He is the natural replacement as he has the defensive skills but, more importantly, the range of passing to dictate the game from the base of the midfield. With either Coquelin or Elneny beside him, Xhaka can have that role. As we saw on Saturday, Coquelin and Elneny together loses that creativity needed in that area of the pitch. I think the CoqEl partnership may well work against teams that come at us, but not against the smaller teams (including Borinho’s Manure!) that park the bus.
Couldn’t agree more. Strange thing to do to lend out Jack, because he is as ypu say the only central midfielder on level near Cazorla. We struggle every time Cazorla is out, and if Wilshere is fit enough to play 90 minutes for Bournemouth, than he’s fit enough to be a back up for us. He’d get plenty of matches if can stay free of injury.
I have to be optimistic here……………
If he can remain injury free, my bet is he will benefit from the Bournmouth/Howe experience, and a mature Jacky will return to us.
I am a massive Wengerite, and always wonder who could replace him eventually?
There’s few who could, but E Howe is a class act and a possibility down the road.
Oh, and while I ramble, I think Mourinho whispered in Conte’s ear yesterday ” I am thinking about becoming a toilet salesman”
I watched the game, Bournemouth vs Shits live just because of Jacky boy.. He had Wanyama on his ass all afternoon.. Last five minutes of the game he was a class above everyone on the pitch and the most likely to carve an opportunity… Scary to think what it would be when he would back to his best…
I watched the game for the same reason. I love Jack but he wouldn’t get the playing time at the moment to help him get back to his best, it would have been a catch 22. However I feel he’s the most similar player to Cazorla and perhaps he’s being overplayed a little as he’s the only type of player we have with his skillset in the squad so it will benefit us to get him fit, in form and back at Arsenal. Hopefully, Jack cracks on and we can have them both playing next year because Cazorla cannot play… Read more »
same here mate
I’m proud of him really, like a young’n tasting true independence at university and taking it on well . I was shocked like most of us when this first came about and actually happened, but week by week I can’t help but this it was a brilliant idea and ballsy to follow through on. It should really help his character and hone his talent. He’s still got the quality if he’s playing ~90% of his passes at varying ranges forward and backward. The more confident he gets the more he’ll hopefully get involved in assists and goals too. Curious to… Read more »
*insert joke about going on the pisser and obliterating the student loan in a day*
Hopefully an injury free season and the wake up call of possibly leaving Arsenal will deliver him back to us as the player Jack promised to be!
He looked ok but perhaps he made the right decision in terms of playing time although he would have played this past weekend.
He really needs at least a season to play.
We could have done with him against Boro in Santi’s absence! Hopefully he’ll return a better, stronger player who’s played a full season without injury.
I was one of the few who welcomed Jack’s decision to go to Bournemouth. It was clear that what he needed most was regular football, and it was clear that he wasn’t easily getting into the first team at Arsenal, which you could chalk off as him shying away from competition. I prefer to look at it as him being humble enough to see that the likes of Santi, Ozil and Ramsey were just clearly preferable for the manager BECAUSE of the issue of fitness. But something irks me about this: “For me to come down here and taste a… Read more »
This is why athletes typically give boring cliche answers to questions. Spurs had something like 70% of the possession. All Jack meant was that he is not used to being on the team that spends most of the time defending where fighting for a point or a stolen win is seen as a positive result. Clearly different from the typical Arsenal game. Personally, I thought Jack did not play well on Saturday. With so little playing time over the last two years, I am still optimistic that with a consistent run of games, he can get back to his dynamic… Read more »
Totally agree with this. I watched him. He did a few nice things, a couple of classy touches and dribbles which showed his obvious technical superiority to his teammates. But he also a few times did that thing of going on a dribble, getting muscled off the ball and instead of getting up and dusting himself down to fight for it back, he lay on the ground staring at the ref, hands raised. As was said, he was the best player in the final 5, which says to me his match fitness is fully back. Next step is to get… Read more »
Just not too much “tenacity” he injures himself hey 🙂 He’s still lunging into tackles carelessly, but perhaps that’s because he’s not 100% and over running or miss-controlling the ball…I thought Harry Arter was a pleasure to watch, be good to see if Jack and learn anything from him. Perhaps that desire of not being a little girl on the floor after a tackle.
Santi is not getting any younger. Jack is the natural replacement.
He doesn’t look like he has found his stride in that side yet. He’s a wonderful player, as we all know, but he will insist on taking extra touches that slow Bournemouth’s game down, much like Cesc did when he loved to Barcelona. That will hopefully improve as/if he plays more.
Jamie Redknapp offers nothing as a pundit but an endless stream of tired footballing clichés, and clearly knows nothing about our Jack. We know he has an Arsenal future, Jack knows he has an Arsenal future, and Redknapp can stick to pissing around with James Corden on Sky1, thank you very much.
Jamie Redknapp is a prick who’s bitter about his own sick-note tag. Jack’s already surpassed the self proclaimed spice boy’s career medal tally and has a level of skill that should be showcased at the top level, as opposed to Redknapp who found his level at dead end mid-table sides like Liverpool and Sp*rs.
I like your description of Liverpool and spuds ?
Think this loan will do him more good than staying at Arsenal would have.
Jack can get back to his best if he plays 35 matches in a year and i think he will do it this year. But i don’t think next year will be the best time to call Jack back to Arsenal team, I am not saying that we should just sell him. No we never should, according to me he has Arsenal engraved in his heart which is the most lovable thing about him and he should be Arsenal’s future captain. But Santi is playing amazing football at present and on what grounds we shall let his contract expire this… Read more »
To be fair, Coq and Elneny are competing against each each other while Santi, Xhaka and Ramsey are fighting for the other. So opportunities may have been limited for Wilshere, and it’s really minutes that he needs more than anything. Long term, the loan seems a sound decision on his part.
“For me to come down here and taste a different side of the Premier League, where you have to fight for everything, fight for every point and work as a team, it is definitely out of my comfort zone.” Nothing about this sentence reflects well on either Wilshere or Arsenal. Surely at Arsenal he and every other player for that matter should be fighting for everything, every point and working as a team? Why should he have to go to Bournemouth to start doing these things? They seem to me to be the bare minimum requirement for any professional footballer… Read more »
That statement refers to Jack, ha made it. Personally I think it reflects badly on him, not The Arsenal team per -se.
No player should be able to get into a comfort zone, thats a failure of management.
But that is probably the major failing of Wenger’s management, he’s always relied on having highly self motivated players as he’s never been a great motivator himself.
Norwich City goal.
I think what Jack mentioned is what made Leicester Champions last season,they fought for everything every point and worked as a team.