Arsene Wenger says Jack Wilshere earned the right to be captain during Arsenal’s 3-1 win over AC Milan and that the decision to give him the responsibility was not part of a plan to woo the midfielder into signing a new contract.
Wilshere took the armband from Laurent Koscielny when the Frenchman limped off after 10 minutes and put in a solid performance as the Gunners secured safe passage to the Europa League quarter-finals with a 5-1 victory on aggregate.
A week earlier, in the aftermath of the first leg, the 26-year-old revealed that he was no closer to signing a new contract at Arsenal despite the club making him an offer that, due to his injury history, includes a pay cut before appearance and achievement related add ons.
“No, not at all,” said Wenger when asked by beIN Sports if the captaincy was a way of helping to secure Wilshere’s long-term future.
“He was born at the club, he has a long history with the club, a strong link with the club. As well he’s a leader through his attitude and his tactical knowledge on the pitch.
#Wenger Exclusive:
The latest on @JackWilshere's contract situation. #PL #AFC #Arsenal pic.twitter.com/liCiXaYvLI
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) March 24, 2018
“Jack Wilshere has a big quality apart from his technical top qualities, he has personality and he’s in the right place on the pitch and now he has the maturity to organise around him. That’s why I played him central.
“I thought the combination of history, that he’s a long-term player at the club, the fact of his experience and knowledge now, that’s why I chose to make him captain.”
It would be stupid for Jack to leave, tbh
Yeah no matter what people say. I feel like it’s also stupid for Arsenal to let him leave.
Injury prone, I understand but he’s like a 30-40 Million dollar player in today’s market and with Arsenal we might just replace him with another winger or striker. There’s also not telling whether a like for like replacement will hit the ground running. Look at Laca and Xhaka, highly rated but there still aren’t living up to the hype. They could eventually…
I suspect we would have bit someone’s hand off if they had even offered 20m for Jack this summer. If we buy a proper DM (let’s assume Sven and Sanhelli have taken over squad building this fall/winter from Wenger) then the odds are we go back to a 2 man CM in which case Ramsey and Jack are competing for 1 spot, a competition Ramsey likely wins given his energy and much greater end product. So really the question then becomes do we prefer Jack on high wages (he won’t be top of the pyramid but he’s still on star… Read more »
Cos all our captains left after a short while, Vermalen, Van Persie, fabregas,Gallas (Arteta, Mert) lol. Strange things do really happened to this club of ours.
Captain’s armband is the kiss of death
The BFG is staying. That bucks the trend.
yeah but hasn’t played much since he became captain
I mean it’s a fair point. We haven’t had a captain who has played regularly for a couple of seasons on the bounce since Viera. This has also coincided with our down turn in fortune with regards to league titles. I know it’s a tenuous link at best but worth thinking about.
Really don’t understand why he hasn’t been re-signed yet unless he is just asking for crazy money. How much would Arsenal have to pay to sign a player of that quality?
£350.000 a week, if jacks got any sense
Hi, This isn’t a post on this article, but with this being the most recent article I just wanted to comment on the recent phone in podcast which I have just listened to. The point I want to bring up is the phone caller who asked why we weren’t considering Simeone for the management position and why it wasn’t being discussed. It reminded me of when he was being mentioned here in the past in the comments section and how many thumbs up it got, not by everyone but by a lot of people. I have been a gooner for… Read more »
Lovely post Liam thank you.
Damn, Liam. You summed up everything of how I feel about our club, and we have similar experiences. I am also a Wenger fan, and i feel like the transformation he’s made is often just mentioned as an aside, something that has to be quickly mentioned before the person really digs into him and trashes his contributions. Make no mistake people, that change is his legacy and it won’t be tarnished by any number of defeats. That being said I also think its time for a change in manager, but never ever just so we can have “change”. Focussing on… Read more »
Great post, Arsene!
Hope you get a new contract so we can continue to be exciting but not win anything.
STFU, Fats.
😀 😀 😀 Likely coz I’m 2L Beer down nevertheless, I found this LOL funny! Kudos Fat! ?
Sorry Liam but…yes, we did play amazing attractive football under Arsene but in the recent past ‘Boring Boring Arsenal’ is not ironic, it’s accurate. We do not thrill anywhere near as often as we bore. Arsene’s principles have not changed – he still tries to get his side to be excitin… but he simply doesn’t manage it.
There’s a big difference between how simeone plays and how Graham had Arsenal play. If we had simeone as manager we would still be a lot more exciting than any team managed by Mourinho or by how Wenger har us playing now. In my opinion!
I would so much rather have luis enrique or the current bournemouth coach than some boring coach.
Thanks for the post, Mr. Greene. It was a refreshing read amongst the sea of vitriol we’re so used to seeing these days.. I won’t divulge my age here but you can consider me one fan generation after you – I started supporting our beloved Gunners pre-Wenger days (technically) when the great Dutch maestro Bergkamp first joined. That 95-96 season was not great and even the early Wenger years had doses of that winning 1-0 and defensive football you were alluding to so I concur with you in that I too prefer the free-flowing offensive, purist style of Wenger football… Read more »
We certainly don’t want to be playing like United
I can only wholeheartedly agree with what you wrote. GG was successful but at the expense of any joy. People were going to the stadium was just for the friends, family and sense of community rather than the football. It was boring, tedious to the extreme. Regarding with replacing Arsène Wenger, I wonder who could be successful in the long run and keep his principles of attacking football. ManUTd went the arrogant one way and he is sucking the life of them. One of my friend supported of ManUtd is telling me that he now knows what a fan under… Read more »
All our recent captains sit by the pitch and watch, collecting their money. I’m sure Jack could do that.
How about a captain that appears on the pitch all the time and helps control and motivate our players, just an idea…
hopefully wilshere waits it out for the next manager who i am hoping will be announced this summer!
Sadly, there will be NO new manager in the summer but I like your thought process. I just worry that talent like Iwobi would be done irreperable damage by the time an actual coach comes in.
I’m just sat here wondering why more of our players don’t have a (relatively) low basic salary + a fat appearance / performance bonus
We have been saddled with a few expensive injury prone / bench-warming players in the last few years.
Then the guys who are playing regularly (whoever that may be) take home the most money …
It’s not like any of them are going to be poor either way. Does seem kind of fair in a way too …
Maybe it would be a more difficult discussion to leave out fot first team players if their pay is determined by time spent on the pitch?
listen wenger, either you want him or you don’t, if you want him give him a huge pay rise, if you don’t sell him, but don’t mess about, we all know your game trying to get him to stay on the cheap, but I hope jack doesn,t fall for it
But is it as simple as that? Does Wenger control all of the contracts to that extent? Ray Parlour doesn’t seem to think so. I went to an arsenal legends night, at a theatre earlier in the week, Merse, Parlour and Perry Groves….. Parlour reckons that he doesn’t have as much say over the money as we’re all lead to believe, regarding contracts and transfers. He said that Wenger was absolutely fuming about that stupid Suarez bid of 40m+£1, but he just too loyal to publicly criticise the board. I think the fans lay to much blame at Wenger’s door… Read more »
Boring story. I bet you Wilshere stays: just like Ozil he won’t find another club dumb enough to agree to his ridiculous wage demands. And to Arsenal he’s worth a lot of money, so a deal will be found. Isn’t the international break f**king boring? Who cares about the stupid World Cup anyway? I bet Wenger can’t wait for everything to start up again so that he can win those meaningless end-of-season matches against those weak lower-league teams. And if we can make it to the semis of the EL then Le Prof can claim to have “turned the corner”… Read more »
Don’t you get it, Fats? Wenger aint going anywhere (win or without the Europa cup) unless there is a change of mind from the silent board. Not saying I want him to stay but the sooner you realize that, the sooner those nightmares of yours go away…
Two seasons without CL football should convince even the wig-wearer that Wenger is past it. The fact that young Josh has now ensconced himself in London to find out how the club is being run (what took him so long?) tells you what going on behind the scenes. Unless we win the CL the old fool will be booted out. And not too soon.
Jacks a gooner through and through. I’m happy he was made captain. He’s getting a run in the team and is looking more effective with every game. I hope he signs a new contract, stays fit and keeps improving. Definetly a future Arsenal captain.
The Jeff seems to be performing well at his loan spell in France. I wonder if Wenger wants to take a gamble with him in a Ramsey like role. From the highlights I’ve seen, he’s Viera like.
He got injured again missing the Italy game. Should be back for us.
Cech is a good captain and as Blogs says should be playing in the Europa. Wenger has become illogical, maybe 10 years ago.
Bloggs doesn’t like David Ospina, perhaps if he’d highlighted every mistake Petr Cech has made this season people would be calling for Ospina to play in the league games. Cech is a really nice guy, but even he admitted he’s been pretty awful lately, and he heads the list for goalkeeper mistakes leading to goals. Not captain performances.
Hurry up and get this week over with.
Sucks doesn’t it
Fuck me, we’re seeing adverts for Citeh tickets on arseblog now!?
I thought the adverts you see depend on what you have been looking at on the internet.
I’m not going to say what I see.
Well I definitely wasn’t looking at Citeh tickets…..so you might get lucky. Haha
Leaving aside the emotional pull, we should be absolutely prepared to let him leave should we think the contract does not turn in the club’s favour. There are many things to recommend retaining Jack not least the benefit of his leadership as a senior player that has come through the ranks and as a local lad who knows the value of the cause for the club. BUT we also have to be cognisant of his injury record. It is debatable if we should have stepped down on the offer to him considering the intangible value added he may bring but… Read more »
Speaking of midfield…Paul Pogba anyone?
Exorbitant buy but transformative if we can get him focused.
Me thinks we have done some business with his agent (and United) recently which may pave the way?
You’d be gambling “how much?” on “if we can get him focused”?
In no circumstance do i agree with everything the club has done over the last few years but i have to say as sad it is on a personal basis for Jack, the contract they have offered and how it is structured is entirely sensible. He is injury prone, and whilst his presence is being played out like a classic shakespearan play within a play at the moment this is very much a small issue compared to signing up The Welshman to a new contract.
Wilshere may have deserved the captaincy for this game, but no way does he deserves it full-time or even a pay rise. AFC cannot built a team around a player who at best will be available 50% of the games.
We should give him an ultimatum, sign within 4 weeks, or just start using Neilson in his place. With the league and top 4 already gone, we’d better off to give time to a young hungry, willing to make a name for himself player.