Arsene Wenger says he’d like to keep Jack Wilshere at Arsenal this season but hinted the player’s long-term future at the Emirates is still up for debate.
The England international has entered the final 11 months of his contract and could leave on a free should the Gunners not offer an extension before next summer.
Wilshere featured for Arsenal’s under-23s on Monday night as he stepped up his recovery from a fractured leg suffered in the final weeks of last season while on loan at Bournemouth.
In the eyes of the boss, the most important thing for the midfielder is continued game time.
“For him, it’s good that he’s back and available,” he told his pre-Stoke press conference.
“He needs games now. He might play again on Monday night [against Manchester City under-23s], but overall, what is important for him is a natural progression to be completely fit. He’s not far away now.
What's the latest on @JackWilshere? Here's the boss with an update…
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Asked if he sees Wilshere playing his football at the Emirates this season, Wenger added:
“At the moment, yes. I plan him to be here for the whole season. After, we’ll see at the end of the season.”
Sounds like wenger expects him to play for a new deal this season or take a massive wage cut when he leaves in the summer
Pretty much, I’d say. I’d be more inclined to sell him, but clearly something isn’t quite happening there. Even if we do keep him though, I still think we need another signing in midfield.
Given all the talk about an oversized squad and the absence of a significant link to a CM in the transfer window, I highly doubt we will sign another midfielder if Wilshere stays.
We’ve been linked quite a bit with this fella Seri at Nice…
If he is staying they should try and secure a one year contract extension or an option to extend. If he had a great injury free season and then buggered off somewhere for free along with various other players it would be pretty disappointing. If he is being given an opportunity to prove himself back at Arsenal (which I am all in favour of), we should be getting some commitment from him in return.
Sensible approach from Arsene I feel. If Jack can get his full fitness back he can be an important part of our squad this season with so many games to play. If Jack is back to his best and we offer him a new contract I’m convinced he would want to stay and continue his career with Arsenal so losing him on a free shouldn’t happen ,although of course it could.
So another Summer another If. Actually more Ifs.
When do we enter a season with confidence like we used to at Highbury?
Remember the Vieira saga? Henry linked with every club? Anelka and his brothers? Overmars? Petit? Even at Highbury we had this shit. It’s football, happens to every club. I’m fascinated to see how we handle this, if we keep the 3 players and let them go on frees next season, you have to say that is a massive change in policy. I welcome that, although what we do next year in the market will define this club for several seasons. That’s why it was essential Arsene stayed in the end. At the very least he is a genuine football man… Read more »
True. I meant having a fully competitive squad. There were uncertainties about will they go. Now it’s about can they come and that’s my point. Look at what we have already. Jack rarely plays, cazorla well. Ramsey with his injuries and correct me if I am wrong but until mid last season he was shunted on the wing. I dont know if it had something to do with positional awareness but the boss preferred him out of position on the wings. So my concerns were the if X can stay fitter than he’s ever been and if Y can raise… Read more »
I woudnt put it that way sanchez ozil and wilshere will all extend if we win the league this season.
The whole reason football is fun is because of the ‘ifs’. There are never any certainties.
Most sensible comment on here in a while.
You haven’t been reading mine then…
I like jack . for all his troubles he is still a talented player. Centre midfield is probably his best position.
But in don’t see how would he fit in our current formation. He lack the athletism to play as one of two centre midfielder and lacks the creativity to play as one of two no10 behind the striker. Itd be like what we does every time fitting square pegs in round holes
lacks creativity? Are you sure?
Apart from Ozil and Santi, Jack is the most creative player we have. Not the best; the most creative.
I think he could play either of those roles. He’s done them before just fine. He gets around the pitch more than you might perhaps remember.
Youre kidding right?
Good call I think. Depending on what he could command in the current market of course, but I suspect that gambling that amount for a year of Wilshere is a fair punt. We cannot rely on him untill he has proven his ability to stay fit, but he remains a useful squad player who contributes something which few others possess.
On the one hand I’m happy that we’ll have Jack (if that’s actually true) but one the other hand – we have about a gazillion players out of contract next summer. If AW believes that uncertainty derailed our 2016-2017 season, how is this season going to be any different?
I don’t see how we can compare individual player situations to that of Wenger’s last season. Look at each situation individually. Alexis: as much as he would have liked to go somewhere else this summer, he has come to terms with the fact he is staying. Alexis won’t and can’t play at anything other than 100%. Will he care about Ox or Ozil’s contract sitautions? No. He is playing for his own legacy. Ozil: it is clear he loves life at Arsenal. Nobody can begin to judge his commitment just by looking at his body language. His stats will rack… Read more »
Not wanting to sound negative but looks like another season of trying out the same stuff to see if it comes off concerning midfield. If jack stays then we will have added a player to last season’s midfield. I was hoping for a new quality signing to start there but like any arsenal fan I know how the boss always likes the look of internal solutions. Might be too early but once again we might be where we’ve been before. Entering a new season with a squad almost everyone feels we didn’t give ourselves the best shot at achieving the… Read more »
Fully fit Jack is much better option then any other available midfielder seri or other, but that is a big ask if he stays fit, we will not rush him as we have midfielders now but we will need him for sure in the letter stages of the season as we all know we start the season with many midfilders and aroudn new year we end up playing with ox in CM as all our midfielders are injured. Although Jack is only player that could bring us cazorla play when on form he can drive dribble and get the ball… Read more »
This is nothing more then Jacks contract forcing Wenger into a stalemate. He wants to sell him, but he cant because nobody will pay Wilshere the money he is getting at Arsenal, so Jack is in no rush to leave.
And its exactly the same story for all that lot; Gibbs, Jenko, Debuchy, Perez, Walcott… etc..
This is the sort of stuff that has been a huge problem at Arsenal, paying huge wages to bang average players. In turn draining our resources so we can’t pay top players the going rate / bring in new talent worth said large contracts
It’s a huge problem at almost all of the top clubs in England, that’s why City can’t offload Nasri and why Sp*rs were still paying part of Adebayor’s wages when he was at QPR. Higher wages ensure that players will join you and remain with you over other clubs, particularly players who know that they could be squad players and could get more playing time elsewhere – something has to keep them or you will never have a deep squad. Problems such as these are part and parcel of being and acting like a big club, the club are damned… Read more »
Don’t embarrass yourself saying jack is bang average. He is an extremely gifted football player who has struggled with injury.
He certainly was when we gave him his last contract. Whether he still is is open to debate, he looked to me to have regressed (surrounded by mediocrity) at Bournemouth last season. If he’s still brilliant then there won’t be a shortage of clubs queuing up to sign him this month…
Embarrass myself? Jack is a bang average footballer now. Did you not watch him play at all last year? Yeah, he looked like a real prospect back when he burst onto the scene, but guess what, he hasn’t done anything. His Arsenal career is all but over. He hasn’t hit the heights we all thought he would, obviously injury had a huge part to play in that, but also he took his eye off the game and got caught up in all that other stuff that young English players seem to get caught up in. He was constantly caught out… Read more »
He says Jack is staying “at the moment”. That’s not really ruling out a move if a suitable offer comes in …
I don’t think Arsene has any option other than to plan for him to be at the club at the moment and the same goes for all the others who are available for transfer but haven’t left yet. Even Debuchy was still training with the first team last season. The crunch comes if a respectable offer comes in for any of them – I am personally in no doubt that Jack will be free to go if someone offers us around £12-13m for him. Whether we get such an offer and whether he will want to go are separate matters… Read more »
Jack deserves one more season with us to prove he can sustain his fitness and strength and push on… ultimately we need a decent, ball playing midfielder and a fit, fully functional, top of his game Jack Wilshere fits the bill. He loves the club, the club love him, the fans will love him all over again if he can do it. It’s now down to him to prove to the boss that he deserves to be part of a rotating first team squad. I hope he does it. Welcome back Jack!
Of course he “wants to keep him”. Anything else lowers any value he might have, both in football terms and the transfer fee that might realise.
I would prefer if JW would stay fit and play games for Arsenal. He knows how to keep possession and that is very vital for our midfield play. We need midfielders who can keep things simple and do the required tasks efficiently.
I for one am happy to hear this. I’ll never agitate for his sale. When I watch his clips again, I nearly start having tears in my eyes. There’s nothing worse than having the incredible talent but not the physique to go with it. I don’t want to be in Wenger’s shoes right now. Wilshere is by far the most talented Arsenal Academy product I’ve ever seen. A Cazorla copy at his best and I don’t want us to lose that. I’ll be praying for him this season.
Certainly won’t get much playing time except in early rounds of Cup matches and maybe some Europa matches depending upon the opponent.
Still remember when he broke out with so much promise- future Arsenal and England captain the pundits said! Even just a glimmer of hope for the kind of player he promised to be is worth not giving up on him just yet in my opinion. C’mon Jack the Lad!
There goes our CM signing. September 1st, Wilshere out for 3 weeks that turn into 6 months…
Im sure he will keep our medical team busy
The thing with Wilshere that gets me is that people are acting like he didn’t so much as kick a ball last year. He made 27 appearances for Bournemouth, eased in for the first couple and then only getting injured again for the last few. That’s not to say he isn’t injury-prone, but Diaby isn’t an appropriate comparison (8 appearances in four years!!!). If we can get him back to his best, I can’t think of many better midfielders on the market. Rumours are the Chelsea could pay upwards of 40m for Drinkwater, that’s where we are today.
40m that’s crazy. They should just get it free from the tap.
??????
I hope Jack stays, gets fit and properly fights for his place in the team..i even think he would make a pretty good left wing back. It would hurt to see the guy we all thought was a future Arsenal captain and the best English midfielder of his generation shuffle out the door without having a real go at fulfilling his potential in the Arsenal shirt. COYG
sorry had to vote down on the left wing back idea. Completely agree I would be hurt to see him leave. Was bad enough see him go on loan.
Good luck to him. A fit Jack Wilshere all season would be great. He still has so much potential. Ok, he didn’t light up Bournemouth but he wasn’t a disaster either. I really hope he manages to play himself into a new deal because I still think his ability and potential could be greater than Ramsey’s (who I also rate). If it weren’t for all the injuries over the years I feel our central midfield would look a lot different.
“At the moment” Jack is more likely to be sold if a good offer comes in. He is too much of an injury risk for us. Apptitude and ability are there but reliability is difficult. Which is the problem as well moving him on. I think 6-10m should be good enough to move him. Whether the clubs will necessarily pay his wages is of course another issue. For me, we should be enquiring about Pastore. PSG now need to balance the books. Pastore has been unfashionable of late. At 28yrs he has plenty of experience to impart but he is… Read more »
Goodness get over the pastore thing its never happening!!!
The fundamental issue in terms of sales for 3 contract rebels : Alexis – no sale to City (Strengthening a title contender). IF offshore (Say PSG), then yes (if player is keen) Ozil – no sale if no significant interest. Ox – no sale to Chelski (Strengthening title contender) Of the 3 we stand to lose thew least amount on Ox for money paid on him. All other offer prices are to some degree existential. If we don’t have to worry as much on earning income from sales against performance, then we need to consider covering loss on money spent.… Read more »
I believe Ramsey is also in final year of contract?
He is one of the best midfielders you can v at the Emirates if he can stay fit. The one man I v seen in modern football putting Iniesta and Xavier in his locker and make them anonymous. A different training program tailor made for him is opportune. I remember King coming on match days and do the business. Jack is a Gunner guys
its a case of were stuck with him because of his latest injury if he had gone all season at bournemouth injury free then maybe many offers would of come in, he could be the fly in the ointment if he remains fit and gets game time he could be a remainer