A few weeks ago, Arsene Wenger sounded quite optimistic about the prospect of Jack Wilshere signing a new deal at the Emirates. Things appear to have changed.
While the boss maintains that he’s eager to see the 25-year-old commit his long-term future, it sounds as though the club has made the player a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer that remains unsigned.
Wilshere hinted at an impasse after last week’s win over AC Milan, saying: “Things have changed since then and all I can tell you is that we are no closer to sorting anything out,” he said.”
Asked about the situation in his press conference ahead of the second-leg with the Italian giants, Wenger said: “On my side, nothing has changed.”
He added: “I don’t know [on the chances of him staying], but Jack will be free at the end of the season.
“We make a proposal to him, I want him to stay and to be linked with the club in the future, that’s my desire and I hope he will do it.”
It has been suggested that the offer made to Wilshere doesn’t include a wage increase because the club still has reservations about his fitness after a string of long-term injuries.
Whether that’s true or not, it’s fair to assume that Jack won’t be anywhere the top-level earners at the club if he does sign on with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan dwarfing him on that front.
Well, I had a soft side for wilshere… But it seems to be getting harder
Is that because you’re now liking him a little more?
He is still a useful player to have around but his annoying habit of going to ground and looking like he is injured seems to becoming more common.
AFC are right to offer the sort of contract involving add ons for performance because we have a history of injured players not being available for long periods of time and costing a fortune in salaries. I.e. Diaby,Santi,Wilshere,Welbeck,Walcott,Ramsey etc.
This is not a dig at those players,it is a fact.
Naughty ?
Does’t matter who stays as long as Wenger is still at the club.
Clarity about @antgoons comment. Did it get a thumbs down because people don’t want Wenger to leave or because of the way it was worded? I thought most people wanted him to leave…
The article has got bugger all to do with Wenger leaving. Maybe people are just bored stiff of talking about it.
That accounts for my thumbs down.
I’d prefer him to stay.
And also just bored of hearing it irrelevantly mentioned under every article.
Can you change your name to DB10’s Ainsley Maitland-Air Miles
Seems like he’s on the way out, but I have no doubts about his commitment in matches between now and the end of the season. It will be much harder seeing Jack in someone else’s colours than some of the others who’ve left recently – he’s a proper Gooner.
Can’t blame him for wanting a raise though. I want one too.
We all want a raise, but you’d of thought he would understand the reasons why he isn’t getting one and why other people are.. Mesut Ozil gets a huge contract because he is a huge star who probably makes the club lots of money through merchandise etc.. and lets be frank, he also happens to be one of the best footballers in Europe, he literally just broke the record last week for the quickest a player has ever made it to 50 assists.. but ultimately he had so much leverage because the Sanchez situation allowed him to pretty much set… Read more »
Completely agree with almost everything you said apart from the bit that he’d get a better contract elsewhere. None of the top clubs in England have shown any interest in him and if you look at his injury record and how he’s played when fit, you can absolutely understand why. And outside England only the clubs like Bayern, Real, Barca, PSG and maybe Juve play such high wages. Don’t see him get into any of these teams. He’d probably do a Walcott and go to a club like Everton for less money but with a guarantee to play, because I… Read more »
@Berlingoon I wasn’t thinking about the top clubs really. I was thinking someone mid-table who would throw lots of money his way to make them their marque signing; someone like an Everton, or a Burnley, maybe even Leicester.. Like big fish small pong kind of deal. I think maybe he might be able to secure something fairly decent in Serie A, or maybe even La Liga. Which, if he does decide to leave Arsenal, I hope he does go abroad. I think it would hugely broaden him as player. The slower paced possession heavy format of those leagues would definitely… Read more »
If one of these clubs would throw loads of money at him, they would maybe match what Arsenal have offered him. There’s no way that clubs like the ones you’ve mentioned pay him more than 100.000 a week. And if he goes abroad I don’t exactly see his chances in the national team increasing. Rather the opposite. If he’d be clever, he would take that offer and try to stay fit and improve and then there would be a good chance that he’d get back in the England squad and have his wages increased in the next years, too. But… Read more »
Juventus would have him in a heartbeat, his style suits Italian football and his best m8 szez is there
italian football is almost entirely based on tactical understanding. Don’t wanna be harsh to Jack but I don’t think he’s very good at that. He loses the ball very frequently and that’s the one thing italians don’t like. Apart from that I don’t think Juve will sign players because they’re mates with other players in the team.
Family man…lol. things must be real tough trying to scrape by with a wife and a kid on 100000 quid a week…poor jack.
You’re having a laugh eh?
Watch last games closely and you will see that he looses possession more and cuts a forlorn picture. His demeanor rubs me as negative in the last couple of games.
He’s lost a bit of speed. Not that he was ever a fast runner but he was quick from at stationary position over a few yards, which was enough to get him out of trouble and lay off a great pass. He’s still a very talented footballer but he needs time and space. Commodities scarce in English football.
Jack has been 110k without playing most of the time, while players who were playimg regularly were earning less.It is time for him to also pay back the club considering the sacrifices they have made for him.
And come on, he’s already making enough money to support his family through the foreseeable future. I really hope he signs but he needs to work hard for that raise
Can’t really say I will ‘miss’ him if he does go because he always felt like a bit-part player in this squad. He did have some fantastic moments but he never seemed to live up to the hype and injuries really hindered his progress.
Best of luck to him either way. Will always like him.
It’s beginning to sound a bit churlish from Jack now. He talked a big game earlier in the season about how much he loves the club and wants to stay, yet when provided with a contract that seems fair all things considered he can’t be arsed. A very similar position to when he took off for Bournemouth with his trousers in a bunch. Sign it, prove your fit, deliver the performances required and I guarantee that contract is renegotiated to a higher base salary. However, it’s looking more likely like Jack is ready to walk away with his head down… Read more »
Been made a fair offer?? Does anyone know what the actual offer is? It may well be “fair” but there’s no way of knowing. I agree with IamaGoober — but to decry his refusal to accept a “fair” offer without knowing what that offer is, betrays a bias against the lad, for whatever reason.
Wilshere can ask Sanchez and I am he will tell him life isn’t that greener on the other sides
Fabregas, Van Persie and Ashley Cole would like a word.
Just Ashley Cole
Cole won the league with us.
Hleb, adebayor, song, and vermaelen all disprove this point you’re trying to make.
Vermaelen is still playing for Barca and won the la liga on the bench.
Sure Vermaelen is chuffed to bits to make the Barca bench and miss the World Cup and, you know, actually playing football
put him in touch with van bronckhorst, hleb and petit at barca too, so that he can pass the message to Bellerin.
He’s off
So he has been paid huge amounts of money to sit on the sidelines injured and is being offered the same very good wage with appearance incentives but it’s not enough because he now expects a raise for this amazing service he had given the club? And this is the same “gooner” jack that ran off to Bournemouth because he didn’t want to compete for a place. Just another example of his poor off the pitch mentality. And yet he still gets the adoration of the fans. I personally couldn’t care less of he leaves. Either way we need better… Read more »
Like everyone else, you have no idea what he’s been offered. Why throw shit around about one of our own players without even knowing the details? This is the sort of perpetual negativity that constantly fucks us over. Why not just reserve judgement until you know what’s actually going on?
but of course judge Alexis left right and centre before he leaves despite how good he is aNd what he ACTUALLY did for arsenal (not just had the potential to do)…because…English
agreed – he lost me when he left for Bournemouth. Told me all I needed to know.
I am convinced people just liked him because he slags Tottenham off during the FA Cup parades
No point hoarding these players. Please let them go along with the manager.
He’s just not that good. Squad player.
Wilshere has never been half as good as Ramsey. Idk why wilshere apologists act like he’s some Legend. He looked average when he played against that ac Milan side. Benched for bmouth. Not gonna be missed.
He does have talent, but yes at this point the recent accolades all seem inflated because he brought a little bit of poor-man’s-Cazorla vibe to an unbalanced batch of MF options.
Still would like to keep him though.
I want him to stay but I really don’t think he can play two or three games a week and so unfortunately for him, that makes him more of a squad player. I back the club on this one.
Surprised we haven’t got him to resign, I’d thought especially with him being a British player, we need to meet the homegrown players quota for European competitions. Or the rise of Maitland, means the club are considering him to replace if goes
The club easily meets the ‘Home grown player’ quota.
Aw, I didn’t think we had so many left, as Gibbs, Walcott, Coquelin have gone.
Because of the age they joined us both Chambers and Holding )and others) are ‘Homegrown’. We’ve also a number of youngsters that qualify as both U21 and homegrown like Iwobi, AMN etc…
Bellerin, Welbeck, Chambers, Iwobi, Holding, Ramsey. I think some of our other HG players are still classified U21. We’ve actually only got 14 of the 17 allowed non-homegrown filled.
We’ve only got 14 of the 17 non-homegrown slots filled right now. With Bellerin, Iwobi, Ramsey, Holding, Chambers, Welbeck, AMN coming in and the U21’s either being homegrown or making up the rest of the squad.
Sorry for the double. Stuck in moderation.
Hehee. My apology for the double was moderated too.
For this home grown thing I believe that’s what is keeping Calum Chambers in Arsenal. That’s the player I need to see out of arsenal.
He’s a decent squad player I’d say. Had a good game at AC.
I’m afraid Wilshere is missing the bigger picture. At 25 he can afford to sign on the terms offered and prove he deserves a lot more. PEA, Ozil & Mik have all won league titles in their careers. They are not on the same level as Wilshere who was mediocre even at Bournemouth.
He was much better than ‘mediocre’ at Bournemouth. He was their player of the month a number of times and everyone their said they played better with him in the team..
Not the same as being our player of the month, but not mediocre.
@Left, he is mediocre,,IMO
He was over hyped as a teenager and has not reached his alleged ‘potential’.
He has been unlucky with injuries but now needs to let his football do the talking.
All respects to bournemouth, but being their player of the month doesn’t mean he’s at a level where he should be starting for the arsenal and commanding huge wages.
I did say that being their POTM isn’t the same as being our POTM (which he has occasionally been), but equally it isn’t ‘being mediocre in their team’ either.
Had been top notch with Arsenal before. Go back to the archives of this blog and read what fans, perhaps including you, were saying about him.
If he wants to fuck off, at the very least i expect him to sign a new deal so that we can make some money off selling him.
Wenger is basically telling jack to sign and it also looks like he is assuring him a coaching role with the club in the future. Normally, for someone who is Arsenal through and through it’s a dream but, i don’t know with this generation. They can be disloyal *****.
Wenger can’t promise a coaching role as he won’t be here when Jack retires to make that decision. At the end of the day it’s a business – we don’t want to overpay for a middle aged footballer (in career terms) and he wants more money than we are offering. Both are understandable positions.
“We make a proposal to him, I want him to stay and to be linked with the club in the future, that’s my desire and I hope he will do it.”
He has been doing his badges along with BFG. It’s a possibility if he accepts the deal.
Jack, Xhaka and El Neny belong to bench. Let’s hope there is a fight for places next season.
sure but a lot changes in 8 years (assuming Jack manages to play until he’s 34). I doubt post career plans will have any bearing on whether or not he signs the contract as he could just as easily get involved in coaching wherever he ends his career (viera) or even somewhere entirely different (arteta). he simply isn’t at the point in his career where the promise of a post coaching career from a manager who won’t still be managing at that point likely matter
I really want him to stay, but this is what you get when all the fans cry “pay him want he wants” causa özil, sanchez etc. The wage gap increasesand and players like jack feeling not estimated enough. Its fair to say he didnt/couldnt do much last two seasons to legitimate an increase. So who will?! He once said the only team in the pl He would play for is West ham and i have serious doubts He would head abroad. He is not gone now and i really hope He wont.
Oof. West Ham.
If that were to hold true Jack’s hand looks bleak.
I wonder whether Jack’s contract is dragging on in small part because the club know how badly new mega-signing Mesut Ozil wants his shirt number. Found it interesting that Ozil wore his M10 branded hat to his contract signing. Maybe Arsenal are sticking to their guns with the thought in back of mind that Jack’s leaving would resolve the conflict by default.
Wenger offered Ozil the number 10 shirt in contract negotiations. Ozil said no need…
I think Wilshere is a decent player, but I can see why we’re offering him the deal we are. Dude hasn’t been able to stay fit for that long – and if he gets injured again, which is likely, he may be out for another 18 months or however long it took him last time to recover. Having said this, writing off 20m (or whatever he’s worth) is kind of stupid, and we’d be better off giving him a nice wage packet with a view to sell him, or set a buy-out clause – something that ensures that we’re not… Read more »
If there were people willing to pay £20m for Jack I suspect we’d have sold him in either of the last two seasons. As it is, not many clubs seem interested even when he’s free
Fair point..but if Arsenal outbid everyone else for his services on a free who the hell is going to pay 20M to take over that contract?
If i were JACK i will sign the contract now and continue to work his way up like he is doing now to become one of key players in the team then strech the club when they decide to tie him down again. He will be 28 by then be in his prime. On the other hand JACK must consider the money the club thrown at him even when he was out injured for many many months.
Looking at Wilshere’s form in recent years, one can argue that his prime was back in his teenage years.
Whoever argues that viewpoint is ignorant, period
Want him to stay purely so nobody else can have him. That said, he should have signed by now. Surely if he really loved the club as much as he says he does, he’d sign and play his heart out and prove he’s worth more money.
Maybe he’s got Ashley Cole disease.
Jack appears to want things now that is very unlikely to happen- he wants to earn silly money, he wants to be the number 10, and he wants to be a big name. I don’t see any other those happening because of his injury record, his performances when healthy, and the other members of the squad. To me it looks like we’re going to lose him on a free because he’s more concerned with being a big fish in a small pond than he is at trying his hardest to become an integral squad player in our midfield. Getting ramsey… Read more »
How do you know he wants ‘silly money’? Are you involved in his contract negotiations?
The problem with Wilshere isn’t his talent, it’s his consistency.
He’s had some excellent games for us but now he’s no longer a youngster he should have become much more consistent.
Unfortunately he hasn’t, which may be something to do with his injury history or it may just be the way he is.
I want him to stay but that’s in the desperate hope he can stay fit and improve his consistency.
A contract which rewards him staying fit and playing well sounds like the ideal solution for the club. Hopefully it will for him as well.
He may also just be wary of changes coming down the tube and what they could mean for him. His head has matured quite a lot the last season or two.
I’m Mesut would not object, then he claim the no.10!
I really like Jack as one of our own. This season he’s offered us an unexpected bonus by coming back so well after all his injuries. He’s shown flashes of brilliance but, given that he’s been relatively injury free and played a lot this season, his tendency to fade badly in the second half is really worrying and raises questions. If we put together a title challenging side, does anybody think that he’d realistically be one of our first choice starters? More likely he’d be a first team squad player. Is it worth committing more money to keep him or… Read more »
Reminds me a bit of RVP. The club develops him and then stands by him, paying his wages through several long term injuries. Then as soon as he is fit, he looks for big money and moves. How about you put your head down and provide some continuous service to the club that has been paying your wages through long injury layoffs and stuck with you in spite of various shenanigans.
Jack has tremendous talent and great training. His ability to trap the ball, turn and burst forward and then pass in almost any direction without breaking stride, was what caught the eye when we first had a look at him. after that, he went through a bit of a crisis, got hacked down and injured, got influenced by Rooney etc, wanted to be a tough guy rather than a “slender spry skilful” player. so he tried the tough guy act, worked out, thickened out, became more direct and aggressive, rather than nimble and slippery. Instead of spending a year understudying… Read more »
I won’t be sorry to see him go, another one always injured and when he does play he’s got no end product. Jack couldn’t even hold down a first team place at Bournemouth, I’m sure we can do better.
You’re wrong. The only games he missed for Bournemouth were against us (where he wasn’t allowed to play) and when he got injured. Also he started almost every one of those games and the few he didn’t he always came on as a sub.