Jack Wilshere says he’ll make contact with Arsenal in the coming days after Mikel Arteta opened the door for the 29-year-old to train with the club.
Wilshere is without a club after his contract with Bournemouth ended in the summer and has spoken frankly about his struggle to stay motivated while training alone.
At 29-years-old, the midfielder should be in the prime of his career but instead, clubs appear to have been put off by the fitness issues that hampered him during his final years at the Emirates and during a two-year spell with West Ham.
Asked about the apparent invitation from, Wilshere, who played with the Spaniard for five years, told Sky Sports:
“I really enjoyed playing with him, sharing a dressing room with him. To hear him come out and say the door is always open is nice.
“I think that it can only help me. As you said, being around good players, training with world-class players and, as well, just being in a team environment is something that I am interested in.
“I am sure that I will have a conversation with someone at the club over the next couple of days.”
Arsenal haven’t had any old boys training with the club in a while but it did happen quite regularly during the Arsene Wenger era. Mathieu Flamini, Sol Campbell and Thierry Henry all wangled short-term contracts out of their former mentor while the gym at London Colney is now named after Robert Pires after he pitched a tent next to the treadmills in 2012 and refused to leave.
It’ll be interesting to see if Wilshere does end up training with the first team for a bit. We know he was doing his coaching badges with Per Mertesacker before he left for the Hammers and he has plenty of experience he can share with some of the younger guys coming through the ranks.
Back in the days when we played one-touch football…
Trust The Sun to do a “How Arsenal could line up with Jack Wilshere” article. And who said journalism was dead…?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/16135880/arsenal-possible-xi-jack-wilshere-return/
“Journalism” and “The Sun” in the same sentence?
Don’t link to that bag of wank mate, only does the scum a favour
While we’re talking bags of wank, I’d just like to give a shout to all the cunts at the Daily fucking Mirror.
The toilet roll that gave Adams his donkey ears back in ‘89. (Before we won the title and they then brown nosed us by calling the team Miracle Men)
Blogs – can you add thesun.co.uk and dailymail.co.uk to the list of banned words in the discussion settings?
Always fun to imagine such things.
Though the truth is that after five minutes, someone from Burnley will do a late challenge on him, destroy his ankle (again) and then leave him injured for the rest of the season.
Why would you be downvoted?
Absolutely loved Jack..that Barcelona game remains one of my favorite arsenal games to go back to and rewatch..he was a rare talent, unfortunately hampered by injuries..but he’s a gunner and I love him.
That’s the only memory we have of Wilshere, the guy is overrated af.
The Norwich Goal ™
Goal of the Season consecutively I believe?
Not a regular match goer but was lucky to see that goal at the stadium. Divine attacking football.
Overrated is too harsh of a conclusion. It’s difficult to tell how good wilshere and Diaby would’ve been in their prime. Injuries robbed us the right to draw such conclusions.
Agreed.
Wilshere did eventually develop that look of someone who drinks every day and then runs it off. Very sad about that McNair tackle, he was looking like he had built up well before that one.
What do you mean by ‘who drinks every day’ drinks alcohol every day is it?
How do you know?
Stop being in denial
It’s not denial at all, I just choose not to believe everything I read in the Press and online, but you’re free to do as you wish.
Surely you mean ‘the only memory I have of Wilshere’…
If he does join us, can’t we register him in the squad outside the transfer window considering he’s a free agent? Not too sure about the rules here. But would be nice to have him around for a while at least.
If he looks good in training, they may offer him a contract. Players like Saka and ESR probably looked up to him so it’d be nice to have him around.
Yeah but Saka is twice the player Wilshere could ever be. Let him train harder I believe a club will come for him. I don’t think I fancy him in our team again considering our past experience. He’s too injury prone plus I don’t like his style of football.
Saka is a winger/forward.
Wilshere is a central midfielder.
You don’t know what you’re talking about mate.
can you cool it with the irrational wilshere hating?
Racism
Pay as you play, but it would be foolish to sign him fully again. Age doesn’t make his issues improve.
Wilshere could surely teach a few of our midfielders to play on the half turn.
Didn’t Saka recently Tweet how he looked up to Jack when he was just starting out at Arsenal?
Maybe Saka meant that literally.
Legally we can (Brentford signed free agent Jorgensen a few days ago), but I don’t see much benefit for club or player.
His Premier League days are well behind him, and even in say the cup game against lower league opposition Wimbledon I would much rather see exciting young talent Patino.
What would be interesting would be to see Wilshire at Portsmouth in League One, perhaps pulling the strings in the middle with Azeez.
I know mate. Honestly I don’t see him as better than anyone in our current midfield except the Swiss idiot.
But I wish some of his quick short passing and runs rubs off on our young boys in training. That’s honestly my biggest hope if he trains with us/joins us.
A fit Wishere is a much better player than any of our current midfielders. At same age, he was at the same level as Saka.
That’s all we kept wishing ourselves. “A fit Wilshere” which never came to pass.
Again, absolutely not true. What other agendas are you carrying around?
Obviously 18yo Wilshere would walk into this side, but he was fit for the majority of his final season with us and tbh played very poorly for the most part. No athleticism, positional sense or end product, careless in possession. His level tactically, technically and physically regressed very badly with all that time out. And nothing since leaving suggests he’ll ever get it back, even if he can avoid injury
Sad but it is what it is. Signing him on any kind of terms would be ridiculous
seem to know everything about him?
like how he spent that season travelling between colney and the hospital for his kids illness?
im sure that would affect my mentalstate too
Excerpt Thomas partey
Come over here and play for GAIS of Göteborg mate! Or you prefer a warmer clime, try the Wellington Phoenix.
Quality sides.
We haven’t really filled the position left by the then 15 year old Ødegaard at my hometown club Strømsgodset yet. Super Jack could do the trick!
Come play in Cape Town our weather much better than both of those places. Your Instagram will look good if you take the move down south.
Agreed – and we’ve just ended a luvverly crisp Spring day here on the southern tip!
YUSSSSSS! The Phoenix would give you all the love in the world. Wellington such a cool little city too
Wilshere and Diaby. LITERALLY the difference between us competing and not competing in the post Highbury youth project.
With those two at full power, I have no doubt we wouldn’t have waited so long for a trophy.
Would have won the league in 08 if RVP stayed fit and we didn’t have to watch Adebayor missing chance after chance
It still hurts!
Hey! He didn’t just miss chance after chance!
You can’t forget the times he was… constantly offside.
Kinda off topic. But imagine if we’d signed Higuaín instead of Ozil and then resigned Fabregas.
🤤🤤🤤
Ozil was a catalyst for us ending our nine year trophy drought. Three FA Cups in four seasons.
And, but for our crappy defence, we would have won the title in 2015/16. That we were in with a shout was down mainly to Ozil, Alexis, Cazorla, Ramsey, Giroud and Welbeck.
Also but for injuries
Oops. I forgot people would rather have a work shy artist than a day in, day out goal machine.
The guy has left Arsenal and you’re still slagging him off.
Sadness personified.
Adebayor was very good that season (24 goals in 36 appearances), carrying the goal-scoring load whilst van Persie was injured and before Eduardo got into the side. Most people blame the terrible end to the season on Eduardo’s injury and/or Gallas throwing a strop. Personally, I’ve always thought Rosicky’s injury in January was a much bigger loss. We didn’t have anyone to properly replace his creativity/ability to set the tempo in his absence. A couple of wins during that run of draws and I think it would have been in the bag. What’s more depressing is that if we had… Read more »
Speaking of tragic leg injuries to mid-fielders… there’s a fella out in the desert (literally!) at the moment who could use a swansong season.
#justsaying
Surely, surely, he would have already asked Arsenal about this before going and doing an interview with Ornstein about having nowhere to train? I find that part a little odd.
And the only way him and the club can communicate is via various press conferences rather than a couple of texts?
It is odd to tell the media of your intention to call the club. What good does it do him to have everyone know this? (I’d like to see him train with us but is this the best way to make it happen?) Possibly just the media getting up his grill and forcing a sound bite?
He basically put the club in a position where they couldn’t refuse. The whole interview was manipulative.
Or, potentially, Jack letting other UK clubs know of his availability?
Exactly – slow news day on the Tabloid’s back pages?
Whatever works for him to regain a level of fitness physically and mentally can only be a good thing for him personally so who are we to judge him for that 🤔
Honestly don’t see what he’d offer in any capacity at the moment.
How to drink and smoke and think you’re better than you are. I detested him as a player and can’t think of any good reason to have him back. He was unprofessional and I can’t see him lasting five minutes at Colney. His “poor me” interview with Ornstein was pathetic, after ripping off Arsenal and West Ham for millions I don’t think he has much to complain about.
It’s ironic that you used the word “pathetic”
On the first point, you would have f*cking hated the ‘89 title winning team.
Post of the Day.
🍺👍
And on the second point you would have f*cking hated those French lads we had in 97-98.
On the third point, I had an ex-colleague contact me the other day. They used to be pretty good to have around, unfortunately their health hasn’t been the greatest and it really interfered with how well they could perform.
Eventually they moved on.
They’re out of work now but they asked if they could come back and work in the office to help get up to speed, you know – build up the cv again and see if it’d help improve their chances of landing something.
You’d absolutely f*cking hate them.
Interestingly, I knew someone else who’s currently out of work (another one who had health issues – but seems to be better at the moment). They feel that they can still do their old job to a good level, but you know how it is, word gets around and there’s a bit of concern from potential employers (rumour has it that some people might not even know that this person’s available for work again). Anyway, he did an interview with the local business website. He known told them a bit about ‘his story’, even opened up about how things are… Read more »
?? I don’t get it.
At least that’s honest (beware long post). Similarly with jokes, a post will have a “subject” and a “target”, sometimes they’re the same, sometimes they’re different. In this instance the original post had many subjects (Including “drinking”), and one target – “Jack”. The premise of the post was that Jack [the target] was detested by the individual. The post could simply have read. “I don’t want Jack to train with Arsenal, I detest him.” If the writer had the courage of their convictions, they would have left it as that. They didn’t. With controversial/unpopular/stupid opinions we tend to justify by… Read more »
Yes, because 1989 and 2000s are the same. After our own Arsene changed everything in English football.
We won the title in 1989.
We won the title in ‘02 and ‘04.
So what’s with the sarcasm?
It’s not about the wisdom of athletes drinking or different eras (See above).
It’s about “detesting” someone for a particular “behaviour”.
If Jack should be detested for drinking and smoking.
It follows that the ’89 team should also be detested.
It also follows that the French players in the double team should be detested.
Well no because the ’89 team would have been competing against teams who also regularly smoke and drank
And the French players in the early Wenger era took their diet seriously, which was ahead of it’s time (at least in England), and more than cancelled out the negative impacts of sporadic smoking
Not expecting footballers to be monks, especially during off-season, but it was pretty careless of him to be caught and for it to become a big deal. It’s one of several small clues that he wasn’t exactly the most professional
Keep up son.
It’s
Not
About
The
Drinking
And
Smoking
—-
It’s
about
consistency
—-
It’s
Not
About
The
Drinking
And
Smoking
—-
It’s
about
consistency
—-
It’s
Not
About
The
Drinking
And
Smoking
—-
It’s
about
consistency
—-
Etc.
You seem like you could do with a drink and a smoke
I bow to your ‘wit’ (if not your powers of cognition).
I know I could!
🤣👍🍺
Wow.
Just when your posts couldn’t get any more idiotic…..
We’ve been infiltrated by the spuds.
“What do you think of Vonnie?”
Shit!
What do you think of shit?
I don’t agree with the overwhelmingly negative sentiment of this post, but I never felt like Jack Wilshere had the temperament to be a truly great footballer – or rather, his temperament didn’t match the type of player he was. He was so talented, and yet it never felt like he reached the level of maturity to just let his football do the talking. He would try and wind up the opposition, but was always too easily riled himself, and never seemed to reach the stage where he transcended those mind games and realised that no-one is ever remembered for… Read more »
Listen, that guy is Gooner through and through. The only thing that ever stopped him from becoming one of the all time Arsenal greats was his constant stream of injuries – and no player in the history of the game has ever taken to the field wanting to get injured. If you could tap his genuine love for The Arsenal and the red and white shirt into a few certain Individuals in our current squad (a certain Swiss springs instantly to mind) then we wouldn’t be playing nearly half as badly as we are at the moment. He’s one of… Read more »
Thanks for your insightful take. The part about having to prove himself resonated with me, about him needing to realise he didn’t have to be the man all the time – from what one can gather from an outside perspective (we can only guess, unless he writes a book about his life!), I think you’ve highlighted a core flaw of his. I remember at the time, a lot of fans (maybe most? Not sure) loved Jack because he was ours and he would bleed, give everything for us on the pitch. He was the one playing who most looked like… Read more »
I think he also suffered from the huge shadow cast by Santi’s glorious glow… massive boots to step into.
And yes, always seemed to have a touch of the Gazza lunacy about him.
But my lord, that goal with HFB…
On the temperament point – I’d say that the premise doesn’t work.. Tony Adams may or may not have said ‘you need 7’ (players prepared to have a fight with the opposition in the tunnel), but think about the Viera/Keane Highbury tunnel incident. How would you describe Viera’s ‘temperament and what effect did that have on his career? Or Keown with van Nistelrooy? Or Winterburn and [fill in the blank]? It’s completely possible to wind up the opposition as part of physically and psychologically intimidating them, without it effecting performance – some players thrive on it. Put it another way,… Read more »
I guess I’d say to take the thing about temperament and insecurity together as a bad combination. The insecurity contributed to his temperament in a way that didn’t for the other players you mention. I think the best players realise the mind games are just that – games aimed at destabilising, but ultimately secondary to the football. Whereas Jack got too involved in them and took them too seriously. Like you say, some players thrive on it, but I don’t think Jack did. I have so many memories of him clearly fuming, clearly having lost his rag, far more so… Read more »
So, yes or no on the return?
smells like a stale Tartt.
Now… tell us how you really feel?
“By three methods we may learn wisdom. First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius
I think a negative outcome highly unlikely. He’s a midfielder with many experiences which could be highly beneficial, regardless of any opinion on his ability/consistency.
He won’t transform average players with his advice, but nor will he ruin good ones.
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Rumi.
Wilshere got his leg and ankle broken playing for The Arsenal. Not worth even comparing to your poor effort as an Arseblog keyboard warrior.
You never know, he could do a Cazorla at Villarreal.
An improvement on Xhaka.
Then again my missus tipsy when she’s had a night out with the girls would present a footballing improvement on Xhaka, never mind anyone else….
How cool would it be if Wilshere could actually stay fit and regain some fitness, impress everyone at Colney, which gets him a contract at Arsenal. And eventually he captains the side to its first premier league title since 2004 at 32 years old.
Ahh a man can dream..
Cooler if he did it at 30…
That’s such a cool dream. It’s been a while since I let myself dream something that nice to do with Arsenal! Thanks for sharing
How can anyone forget THAT incredible one touch team goal that he scored vs Norwich? I almost banged my head on the ceiling jumping up. He had the talent to be a great midfielder and captain. It only reminds us of the incredibly risky profession that is football. For every player that “makes” it there must be literally hundreds of equally talented ones that don’t. I hope he does train with us and to go on to become a great manager
He did make it though, he played at Arsenal when we were possibly at our peak and one of the best teams in the world.
Trouble is, he never took himself or the club seriously and didn’t look after himself. He was undoubtedly very good and had bags of potential but was never prepared to go that extra mile that makes the difference between being a prospect to becoming a reality, maybe he thought talent alone would get him there.
At 29 he still has a whole world of possibilities ahead of him though.
Peak? When was that?
You don’t think the first decade of this century was good enough for Arsenal?
I’d call that peak. Maybe Arsenal didn’t win as many trophies as they could have but in footballing terms they were certainly at their peak, and not just for one or 2 seasons.
Every peak has a climb the leads to it and a descent that follows…. if 03-06 is peak, then Wilshere’s time was clearly descent, still about a decade before we hit the valley (hopefully), but the point remains.
Peak Arsenal was 98-2006.
I’d say 08~12 was promising but we never got out of the foothills.
The mid decade FA Cups were a lovely icing on a pretty average cake, a cake that then went a little mouldy.
I think you might be remembering selectively… he was blighted by injuries, often from heinous tackles by teams who targeted him and from being overplayed (because he was playing well). He might have had some issues earlier on but I don’t think commitment was ever the thing keeping him from being great. He got the very short end of the injury straw.
The England callups always seemed to come at the wrong time too.
Yeah! Agreed. Since he was playing so well, he was seen as indispensable to the England team as well as for us – contributing to his being overplayed. It confuses me, the extent to which people seem to believe that his attitude or personality contributed to him not fulfilling his potential. A lot went wrong that was down to (1) rotten luck (not all of the terrible tackles were malicious, and not all of his injuries were from poor challenges) and (2) from being too good (leading to being overplayed/over selected and being targeted by opposition), in my opinion. He’s… Read more »
One assault by a Manure thug especially sticks in my head, Wilshere had just come back into the team after a longish spell out and fell foul of some hacker that Sir Shithead seemed to breed solely for the destruction of Arsenal players, (I cant even remember the fuckers name!) he scythed into Jacks ankle putting him out of the game and out of football again for quite a while, needless to say the ref saw nothing at all wrong with the “tackle”
It was Paddy McNair
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SmwbDiR04Gg
Don’t watch if easily offended
Manc cunt.
Ah yes, thanks, Its even worse than I remembered,
how does Ferguson sleep at night knowing how he cheated his way to winning.
Another one is when he was scissor tackled from behind and got injured. The ref saw little wrong with it. Something that the other way round would have led to a red card. It comes back to the double standard that has been in place for Wenger’s era at least, that Arsenal are soft and get shaken up by physicality. I think Wilshere’s issues were less about temperament and more that his skill meant often he could only be stopped by fouling him. Once it was clear that he wasn’t getting the protection required by the refs, it was open… Read more »
You touch on a valid point – watching the beast that CR7 remains last weekend, it’s an abject lesson in ruthless focus and professionalism.
Ronaldo may not be a bloke you’d have round for a barbie on Sunday, but that video of him self-training during lockdown spoke volumes for the man’s utter dedication as an athlete.
There is a big difference with him. Ronaldo spent the bulk of his career playing in Spain, where he was relatively untroubled by injuries. In fact his career he has had only a handful of injuries loner than a couple of week. The worst of which happened while he was at United.
Imagine how things could have turned out if he’d stayed in England
There’s a bit of wilshere movement in young Charlie patino. Good to have him around to give him a few pointers
It feels too much to hope for, but if this happened, and it developed into something more, it would be one of the Arsenalest developments in the past decade, and I mean that positively.
Now that was a goal against ‘Only Norwich’ actually worth going bananas about…
Train with the team, yes. But if it is with the hope of a contract, it is a resounding No for me. If he couldn’t cut it at Bournemouth, he won’t cut it at Arsenal. Give that spot to Patino; the boy is a beauty to behold.
He’s knock on Arteta’s door is getting louder with every match he plays.
Still a better player than Xhaka. Agree that Patino looks a prospect.
How can a player who was released by Bournemouth be better than Xhaka? Is it your logical mind speaking, or your sentimental mind?
Wilshere cannot cut at the top anymore.
It is sad but true.
I watched some Bournemouth games last season; it is over for Jack in the EPL. His body will fail him again.
MLS may come to his rescue.
Is there actually a belief out there that current day Jack is better than Xhaka or am I right in putting it all down to bantz?
Kinda hard to tell sometimes
hard to tell. there’s a lot of serious xhaka-hate out there, so i wouldn’t be surprised if they’re genuine. i like wilshere, but to suggest he’s currently at the same level or better than the captain for switzerland is mind-boggling.
With Willian gone I suppose someone’s gotta be the goat to bear most of the scaping
The year is 2022 and Wilshere regained confidence, fitness and a spot in Arsenal’s midfield alongside his former teammate Ramsey who just returned from a spell in Italy. They are the foundation for a very young and talented squad that go to win the Premier League
Hollywood esque
Also got the impression they were less than mates somehow
If he can get fit and if he can get motivated, well you never know . . I’d actually be quite pleased to see him do a job for us but accept it’s unlikely.
Another spice for Amazon all or nothing?
Why the hell not? And bring Santi back while you’re at it, Mik?
I think he could really help the development of our young stars who looked up to him, his experience is something that we actually have a place for, he did coaching badges with per and depending on what he’s after/what we offer contract wise it could be perfect. He displaces no one in the team and would be 3rd choice #10. With a view to join the backroom staff. With partey lokonga and amn with Jack I think we would be free to sell both xhaka and elneny in January and possibly move chambers on or give him one of… Read more »
The Jack Wilshere story, particularly with regards to his time with us, is one that smacks of unfulfillment and “almosts”. The nearly man who never quite. I for one would love to see him pick up the pieces of his career with us and get another run. Life doesn’t always serve up second chances, so I hope that it he is serious about reviving his career, that he does so with real gusto and purpose. Do I think we’ll ever see him in our first team again? I’d have my doubts, but what use is sport without a bit of… Read more »
Jack over elneny! All day,every day!! We need the old values rubbing off the kids…what it means to die for the badge! It’s a no brainer really.. jack would play for us for free!!..I’ll have jack as my experienced substitute rather than xhaka when chasing a game.
Have you seen those games where Elneny chases down every press in the closing stages of games? I think it’s easy to confuse talent and commitment – I would never question Elneny’s love for Arsenal.
Hang your heads in shame whoever downvoted this. Surely a pay as you play rolling contract is absolute minimal risk. Not as bad as signing Xhaka for 3 years that’s for sure
Jack — can’t believe he’s still so young.
I’m starting to resent reading the comments on these articles. How can anybody make out that this could be anything other than a positive thing? Yes Jack had injuries but he’s a gunner and he’s asking for a chance to train with a club that he loves. He’s an Arsenal man, he spent a large part of his life at the club and the Hale End boys would have looked up to him. How can anyone say that having him around would be a bad thing? He won’t cost anything and he isn’t even expecting to get into the team,… Read more »
I’ll tell you why -it’s largely because there is zero respect from a lot of young Arsenal fans for the club’s history or past players. Once upon a time, fans took a pride in knowing their club’s history; nowadays anyone who is no longer in the side – no matter what they achieved – is fair game for insults and abuse that would only have been reserved by old school fans for ex Spurs, ex Liverpool, ex United or ex Chelsea players. And even then, with the odd exception, it would have been fairly tongue in cheek. I read comments… Read more »
I feel like something adding to this is the crowd mentality, or groupthink, that is fuelled by the medium that is the internet – once it’s deemed ‘popular’ to slag a particular player, people who don’t know much about the context or history of a topic/player seem to take no issue with joining along. It’s a shame. Agree that it would be nice for all fans to respect players past and present, and to critique thoughtfully rather than just piling on for the sake of it. It helps to remember every so often that the internet attracts a lot of… Read more »
Agree it can only be a good thing. I remember when Henry and Pires would come back and train – absolutely nothing wrong with it in my opinion and mutually beneficial. It seems like a lot of the negativity here (noting that there is a lot of positivity too, I loved the dream scenario that “Daan” posted) is coming from both peoples’ negative views of the man and player (which I disagree with but can respect that that is their opinion), and the perhaps misplaced thought of him coming to train with an ulterior motive of coming to fight for… Read more »
Signing him again is a bit like going back to that hot girl you dated in High School but broke things off with in pursuit of better things. Only now she’s not as fit, has a few kids and needs constant therapy. But every now and then, you see that same girl who rocked your world one special night.
Post of the Day.👍🍺
Someone didn’t agree with you haha!
Wilshere, it has to be said, showed promise, like so many others. Injury is cruel to many with ambition, the harder they try brings more injury. Fitness in sport is everything to a sportsman, every I jury slows you down puts doubt in your mind in every encounter, makes you feel that the good living you have could suddenly end. So many have passed by the Arsenal ranks, just liking more time recovering than on the field then the tell tale signs of a player being drafted in while they recover the long road to getting your place back. The… Read more »
Can only be a good thing for him. He would be great to have around for the young players like ESR, Sambi and Odegaard.
If he impresses I wouldn’t be against him being here on a pay as you play deal. I’d prefer him over Elneny and Xhaka if he can stay fit and find form. I know that’s probably asking a lot of him now though.
One day, Remy Garde said to young gunners Anelka:
“When you are in a big club, you stay”.
During a post-retirement interview Anelka said to French TV that this quote from Remi Garde was the most important piece of advice he got in his entire career. Once you leave a big club it is harder to get back up to another one.
Too bad there was no Anelka to tell this to young Wilshere. When he left to Bournemouth instead of fighting for his place… the ship had sailed.
Thank you for Norwich and Barcelona, Jack.
Regardless of where/if he ultimately plays, I like this sort of thing. He was an important player for Arsenal and never put in less than a full shift. I know football is very much a business, but I very much like the loyalty and treating one of our own as one of our own.