Arsene Wenger says that the hectic festive schedule means that contract talks with Jack Wilshere that were due to take place before the end of the month will now happen in early January.
The midfielder provided a beautiful assist for Alexis Sanchez in Thursday night’s 3-2 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, and his recent return to form has ticked another of the boxes required for him to be offered new terms.
He has proven his fitness, and now shown he can still contribute at Premier League level, so all going well there should be a new contract on the table for him.
Speaking after the win, Wenger said, “The situation is that we will sit down with him. The beginning of January it’s planned.
“There is no delay, I said we would sort out the situation in December at the end.
“I told him that we want to meet and sit down with him to talk about the future. That’s what I did, but now we play today, Sunday and Wednesday, so at the moment the focus has to be on the game.
“At the beginning of January we will.”
The 25 year old’s contribution to the win was noted too.
“He’s coming back in a good competitive shape,” said Wenger, “and I feel that he gives something to the team at the moment that is very interesting.
“On top of that today he gave a great final ball that you want from him.”
Sign da ting.
I’m absolutely delighted that he seems to have overcome the injury struggles for now and would give him a new deal 100%. I’m also happy to see that a big majority of the fans want him to stay, too. I just hope that all of these “sign him up” guys still know about the risk and don’t blame it on Wenger when he gets injured again or doesn’t become our savior for any other reason. Just want to remember how many people wanted Theo to sign that thing back in the days who are now disgusted that he’s at our… Read more »
That’s a pretty big hope. It’s never going to happen. These people operate with 100% hindsight.
Im not sure these are two contradictory things-its good to secure contract extension with a player who can shortly leave for free and its good to be decisive and capitalize by selling him a year or two later when he is underperforming. Net, signing extension with Theo was right, keeping him when not giving enough playtime is wrong. I think you can expect such logic process from a manager of a premier league team.
Amazing no one knew the fixture schedule at this time of year is busy. So we say one thing and do another. Great values
To think Jack himself is going to be sat in every meeting and not his advisers is odd but aw will be. He clearly doesn’t need to be sorting the defence out
Maybe we’re busy putting the finishing touches to the deals for all the new players we’re going to sign when the window opens next week…
If Jackie wasn’t such an Arsenal man I’d be getting really worried about him talking to other clubs.
Will be thrilled when he signs, like so many fans I just love seeing him on the pitch!
Jack is an Arsenal player.
Give him da ting to sign,
And Jackie boy, sign da ting
I wonder if they will sit down with him before his contract expires. Such a shame the holiday schedule caught them off guard. If only they had known about it four months ago…
It seems Wenger things everyone looks on contracts and future as he does, which is obviously not the case with some of (still) our other players. No working man likes to be in a situation where he has no certainty whether he is wanted, so actually kudos to how Jack actually handles it.
Sounds like it’ll finally get done, hopefully we’ve learned our lesson from the Ox fiasco and don’t try and drag this out unnecessarily
Anyone else think this is a little odd? I can’t see there should be too much to discuss? And like a previous poster just mentioned, it’s not like JW would need to be at all the meetings anyway? Our contract negotiations always seem a massive drama? Other teams just get it done, just look at Spuds with Kane and Ali etc? Just get the feeling that AW is holding off, imagine if JW picks up a injury between now and then (I know this could be also be seen as good management btw) AW will sniggering ‘told you so’ (bit… Read more »
Ramsey will be back soon, will be really interesting to see how Wenger approaches our midfield situation from there.
Reverting to back four and shifting either Ramsey or Jack to RW? Seems most likely, although I’m not a big fan of that.
Ramsey into Alexis’ spot since he is off.
I didn’t buy it when Wenger said Jack is more suited to the front three. It means where Lacazette is playing or where Alexis is or the opposite side. His dilema was always knowing that though they are different players and play different roles, Jack and Ramsey play the same position. It’s sort of avoiding conflict but the reality is he has a tough call and his only way out is to kill the right wing to accommodate one of them like he used to when Santi was fit. It wasn’t good for the team nor the wingers then, Campbell,… Read more »
I still think of all our midfielders (Jack/Rambo/Xhaka/Coq/Elneny) it would be Coq/Jack that could give us the best balance. Jack/Xhaka are both good individually but as a pair it just doesn’t work for me. I agree with you, that would probably mean Rambo on the right wing again with a back 4. I have my doubts about Rambo on the wing too but his energy could make it work.
I’d prefer a right winger/ wide forward on the right and rotation for midfielders in midfield. Not to shift them to the wings just because it’s too crowded in the middle.
fair enough…but Arsene has done this many times before so I think we’ll see it happen again.
Usually when he plays Jack, Aaron or Iwobi on the right side, he’s expecting Hector to be the RW and Jack or the others to be more of an attacking insider right midfielder with slightly later runs into the box, rather than to be right up the field.
Ramsey will play 10 next year as he runs his contract down. Be another ideal situation
Or if Ozil leaves (increasingly likely), he plays a 4-3-3 with a DM and Jack & Ramsey as the 2 CMs?
In truth, he’s never been able to do that, because when both were around, there was always one more WC midfielder we had to accommodate (Fabregas, Santi and Ozil).
I love how we are waiting until the player can talk to other clubs and listen to their offers. Maybe city or Chelsea will offer him a contract for fun, maybe persuade him that playing for a title contender is more fun.
I don’t think he ever will, but we are giving him the chance to do a sol Campbell
I’m gonna get negged for this, but I think this comment by Wenger actually shows why are contract negotiations is a mess these recent years and why we constantly end up with contracts winding down. It’s quite obvious that Wenger himself is heavily involved in all contract negotiations, and naturally, his schedule as first team manager affect all other responsibilities. So if he’s busy, then negotiations have to wait till when he’s more free to do so (usually Jan, or mainly summer). This is a massive bottleneck and constraint. The reality for all other clubs is that December or January,… Read more »
Very true! Not sure why you think you’d get negged for it. It’s also not great if this is the reason we waited until the transfer window is open before starting negotiations. His agent can play up other offers to push for higher wages, and there’s a chance Jack could have his head turned. For all people saying he’s a true Arsenal man, he did choose to go on loan to Bournemouth rather than fight for his place in an unsettled Arsenal midfield, so its not impossible he might move if he thinks it’s better for his England career. Of… Read more »
It’s negative of the great man who is beyond criticism in some minds
Christ I wouldn’t put it beyond our great leader that by delaying negotiations he saves on the wage increase
I don’t see how we save here. If anything we are in a worse position to negotiate. The question was always about his fitness and not his abilities as a footballer. He just went through several games injury free , has played exceptionally well and given us a spark and can now use other teams offers to hold is over a barrel if he wants. This is a complete shamble although it is to be expected considering we were also told that it was an ideal situation to have our two best players going into the season on the last… Read more »
I think with jack at least waiting until now made sense as he’s been injured for years and really wasn’t that successful last year. He’s effectively been on trial this year and to the surprise of many (myself included) appears to have beaten the odds and rediscovered his pre injury form. With the pl wage cap we can’t afford massive increases for everyone. It’s the handling of Özil and Sanchez that reek of sheer incompetence
We don’t, but this isn’t the first time Wenger has alluded to a busy period affecting contract negotiations. He’s alluded to the same with Van P (“We will discuss his contract in the summer”), Ox (made reference to the summer), Theo, and many more. Last year, all other contracts were held up because of Wenger’s own situation.
From an organisational perspective that is ridiculously unhealthy, and explains our transfer situation being so repetitive.
Pleased with this. Really happy to see a player who gives a shit about the club being given a new deal.
He can still be a really special player and seems a lot more mature these days. He appears to have tamed that wild side of his off field personality which will only do him good.
Just out of curiosity, do other clubs do it the same way too? With the manager being responsible for contract talks?
Same with transfers. Every time we are on tour he always talks about how deals can’t be done because “we are in Australia and can’t do anything till we return to London” while other clubs are able to sign players even while they are on tour and they fly out to join them.
What if talks take longer than a week and we enter another busy schedule?
No – that’s the whole point of how the club needs to modernize as Wenger for years has micromanaged everything. Modern managers really are more coaches and a director of football handles transfers and contracts
No other club is run by a dictator who has to be obeyed
We have values when it suits the narrative though
Hi Greg! I think you may want to look up the word dictator. Here, I’ll do it for you: “A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power and wields it in an oppressive or abusive manner. A state ruled by a dictator is called a dictatorship.” So says Wikipedia. Clearly, that’s hardly appropriate here. We’re talking about football, not life and death. Methinks you are taking all of this a bit much. Maybe you don’t agree with Wenger these days (lately I find his subs baffling and tactics wanting), but that is no excuse for abusing the man… Read more »
Homer
Support the team not the regime
I can’t up sticks and support man city. After 30 years of support I personally can’t up and leave. I’ve made my bed. The fact you seem to think it so easy to do that makes you seem a fickle fan who wouldn’t find switching clubs so undesirable
I think the delay is exactly because he isn’t responsible for contract talks.
Every manager is involved in them as the player wants to know as much about his playing future as he can, but the real discussions about terms/numbers will be with Dick Laws replacement and Jacks manager. Maybe AW is more involved than most other managers, but it’s not his responsibility.
Err, Wenger himself has mentioned how he decided the wage structure of the players at the club. Playing future plays little, as that’s also held by intermediaries .
Just sounds like another example of making excuses for Wenger.
Ah yes, I forgot about the “we are on tour” as another perfect example.
The club has to be chiefly aware that such an inefficient situation means we’ve lost potentially tens of millions in player sales and valuations. Considering we’re not likely to get CL money anytime soon and our commercial deals are up, that is a serious risk to the club.
I still wonder if this year isn’t going to quietly be Wenger’s last year at Arsenal. There have been so many appointments to modernize once he leaves (Sanllehi & Minsiltat plus new contract guy), Per to the Academy. Neither Sanllehi or Minsiltat would have been short on offers either so I find it a little dubious they would come to Arsenal without having some concrete knowledge of the plans for the manager. Especially Minslitat as the reason for leaving Dortmund was his falling out with the manager. While I get that City is absolutely running away with things, we look… Read more »
Jack gives us a different dimension bc like Santi he has reasonably quick feet and he is willing to turn and engage, carry the ball from deep, commit the opponents. This is very different from Ramsey who is more a pass and move player. IMO Ramsey is more a surrogate for what Ozil does higher up. Jack can give a bit better balance to the flawed Granit. As for Granit, he needs to improve because the one asset he brings in long range distribution, Jack is also able to perform. If he doesn’t add consistency, we should be looking for… Read more »
The other great thing about Jack is he wears his heart on his sleeves. He won’t shirk from getting stuck in and will give us a bit of grit in the middle.
Still a tad off pace at times but you can see he’s a leader on the pitch for us.
The midfield pair at the moment should come from either of Granit, Jack, Iwobi and Coquelin (maybe Ramsey). Willock has been decent potential. Currently I think in terms of pairs this should be the team – ……………………….Giroud/Lacazette……………………….. Alexis/Welbeck…………………………………(Walcott*)/ Reiss ……………………………Ozil/Ramsey…………………………. ………….Granit/Coquelin…………..Jack/Iwobi……………… Kolasinac/Monreal………………………………..Bellerin/AMN ………….Koscielny/Holding……Mustafi/Chambers………… …………………………….Cech/Ospina……………………….. Now I think we should sell Walcott* and get Mahrez or someone equivalent. 1) It will hedge against an Alexis departure but 2) it also (even with Alexis) allows a more balance threat without having to over commit Bellerin who has been poor lately. The if we sell Alexis say in the summer, we will still… Read more »
AW deserves criticism when its valid but we have no idea what the story is. I would think its because AW wants to wait and see how healthy JW is before signing him or offering him a contract. I can just imagine it now once he signs and gets hurt soon afterwards its going to be why did Arsenal sign him to a contract? “injury prone player for sentimental reasons.”, “Should be more cut throat and transferred him out.”, “Now we are stuck with him for another 5 years at his horrible wage.” Who knows what JW is asking for?… Read more »
Caligunner, that is a perfectly logical and sensible comment.
Nice to see one in this sea of nonsense.
Happy New year to you.
JW has Arsenal running through his spine. Sign him up. Just sign him up.
His injury record is horrendous… no player should have to cope with that. But he has. And he has come back fighting again. Amazing spirit. Inspirational.
Sign him up.
FFS… sign him up.
Reward that fighting spirit. Harness it. Encourage it. Spread it around the club.
Sign him up
Bottle it, sell it!
Sign him up