Jack Wilshere believes Arsenal’s capture of Danny Welbeck is a real bargain and revealed that he didn’t leave his England teammate alone once the striker let on that he might be moving to the Emirates.
Wilshere was with Welbeck on England duty at London Colney when negotiations between Manchester United and the Gunners stepped up and he couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement.
Speaking exclusively to Arseblog News at the BGC Charity Day where he was representing Great Ormond Street Hospital, the midfielder remarked: “It was interesting as we were on our way to training when he said to me, ‘It might be on that I’m coming to Arsenal.’
“From then on I didn’t leave him alone all afternoon. It was seven or eight hours, but he was buzzing!”
Noting that it’s rare for big business to be done between the Premier League’s top four, Wilshere claimed the deal marks something of a coup for Arsenal and a stamp of approval for Welbeck’s quality.
“There aren’t many players who move from one top club to another in England, especially English players. It’s unheard of really. That speaks volumes of the quality he’s got.”
Continuing on the theme, Wilshere also touched on comments made by England coach Gary Neville, who is on the record as saying he can’t believe a player of Welbeck’s ability left Old Trafford for such a small fee to a rival club.
“Gary Neville knows what he’s talking about, in today’s market £16 million is nothing really.
“The quality he’s got we’ve got a real bargain there. What Gary Neville’s said is probably because he [Danny] is a Man United boy who grew up in Manchester. [His background] is a bit a bit like me and Arsenal…it’s a bit like Arsenal letting me go for a straight £16 million, it probably wouldn’t happen.”
Wilshere has started every game for club and country this season (correction, Leicester aside!) retaining the faith of both Arsene Wenger and Roy Hodgson who’ve been treated to flashes of the quality he promised when he burst on the scene as a 16-year-old.
Unperturbed by the flurry of articles that have appeared over the last 18 months questioning his ability, Wilshere maintains that the opinions of his coaches are the only ones that matter.
“It’s part and parcel of the game. People are entitled to their opinion, whether I listen to them or not is completely down to me. I know the people who are going to help me in my career and who has an influence on me – the boss, a few coaches who I respect. Everyone else can say what they want – I won’t listen to them.
“I always speak to Arsene – even a few seasons ago when people weren’t saying anything about me or when I was playing well we spoke. He is a bit like me, he doesn’t pay attention to what a lot of the ex-players and some of the journalists say. He knows when I have a good game and that’s all that matters.”
Wilshere was also quick to acknowledge that his experience at the top level, having made his debut in 2008, means that age is no excuse for having a bad game.
“I think that is an easy excuse. You know, I’ve been around for a while now, it’s six years since I last made my debut. In a normal career that would be 20 years, but football is a short career. I’m feeling good, fully fit and raring to go.
“When you are younger, you look at the criticism and when you have a bad game it gets on top of you. But in football you play every three days so there is always a time to put it right.”
As the season ramps up after the first international break all eyes turn to building momentum in the Premier League. It means starting with a positive result against Manchester City after two draws against Everton and Leicester City.
“We’ve had a strong start to the season but it’s not been easy, especially when right in the middle we’ve had to travel to Besiktas getting back at 5am. If you look at the Everton game, I think you would say given the circumstances we would have taken a draw there. Maybe against Leicester we could have won the game, but we’re unbeaten and that is the main thing. Come Saturday, I think we will be ready for it.
“It will be a tough game, we know that. It always is. We’ve played them a number of times over the last few years. They are always a strong team and they are always going to be up there at the end of the season. We played them a few weeks ago and we came out on top. That doesn’t mean that we are going to beat them 3-0 though.
“Dortmund are just round the corner too, but it isn’t just them two, we have got a really busy schedule up until the nextinternational break. Hopefully we can keep all our players fit because we have improved the squad this year.
“I’m not going to stand here and say it is a must win game. It’s too early. We want to win every game but if we don’t win it, it won’t be the end of the world. Obviously if we do win it, I’m sure it will send out a strong statement, we’ve been here before. Normally we start the season really well, it’s when we get to February and March that we’ve previously dropped off.
“This year we’ve added a few world class player and hopefully that will make the difference. Over the past few years we haven’t had world class signings like the players we have bought in. It’s exciting.”
__
Nigel Brown is the co-founder of DirtandGloryMedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NigelBrown01
You can donate to Great Ormond Street Hospital here.
Picture courtesy of Arsenal.com.
Love how mature he’s sounding these days. Hopefully the days of him picking up bans for flipping the bird at the crowd are over.
Yes Jack, leave the hand signals to opposition fans to me. I’ve got a wide variety of offensive gestures up my sleeve and my talent in this department is top, top, top quality.
I think as fans you never really hear enough about the relationships players have with each other outside of the game, whether they are at different clubs or not. Seriously happy for Danny that he has so many mates here, and he hasn’t even kicked a football for us yet. Being comfortable in your surroundings is always so important when you’re looking to be at your best, no matter what line of work you do, or what level of football you play. Having stronger friendships between all the players can only benefit us, I think t will really help to… Read more »
Jack is special, no doubt about it, and has al the makings of a future Arsenal captain.
But he needs to give up the fags. It’s costing him, and us, half a yard.
You know it makes sense Jack.
And nearly 8 quid a pack
Akpom is also World Class
Giroud’s thighs are world class.
Arteta’s hair is world class.
My comment is world class
The number of ‘nays’ tell another story.
I can’t change that i’m gorgeous.
But you can change that you miss sitters and become the world class striker we know you can be!
Come saturday come.
That picture made my day. The future is so unbelievably bright for Arsenal, its not funny. I’m going to be buying season tickets for years to come, regardless of me living on a different fucking continent.
Up the arse.
—Empty Seat—
I think he does put in a perspective really. I can’t imagine Wilshere being sold for £16m. He is worth much more, atleast double that.
Currently Wilshere is only worth half of 16mn. Lets be honest I don’t see him fitting into any of the top 3 teams in England or Spain…may be in Italy. I believe backing up our players but honestly I don’t believe in hyping them to superstardom when the stats beg to differ.
Here are some stats for you
Wilshere – 19 appearances, 3 goals, 3 assists (’13-’14)
Lallana – 37 appearances, 9 goals, 5 assists. (’13-’14)
Welbeck – 15 appearances, 9 goals, 1 assist. (’13-14)
Granted, Wilshere contribute significantly more in ways that do not usually tally in goals and assists, but still Lallana went for 25 million.
And as for Welbeck as a cf, those numbers are not bad at all…
So if you’re going to mention stats, try looking them up, not just stating them as you imagine them to be.
Ah, I see what you did there. Comparing our transfers with Liverpool’s to show what good value we got – I know that game well.
I’ll go next:
They paid £35 million for Andy Carroll.
We paid the same for Alexis.
And if these stats makes you feel happy. Stay happy with finishing fourth and don’t complain. Wilshere is a decent player but not to the extent of your hype.
Wilshere is 22, so several years away from his best, has fantastic technique, and he’s English. Considering Lallana (26) went for £25m, Wilshere would easily go for more than £16m.
So in other words. .”fuck off Jamie Redknapp!!”
Great read! Jack is sounding evermore mature and intelligent with each new interview that comes out from him; hopefully his game develops from now onwards as well. (P.S He didn’t start against Leicester)
Interesting thoughts from Jack. Though would’ve loved to know why he didn’t play any part in the Leicester game, especially as we needed his drive probably more in the second half.
Wilsheres hungry! Prove those doubters wrong mate. Shere willpower!
Slight correction to the ‘Wilshere has started every game for club…’ Para required.
Agent Wilsh, get in! 😀
I’ll give it 2 hours before some shit kicking hit whoring website rips off your quotes as their own ‘exclusive!’. Otherwise really good quotes and article, been religiously visiting Arseblog and Arseblog news for a few years now. Keep it up!
LMFAOOOO……..c’mon bruh
Good call – Simon Johnson reposted the whole interview in the Independent about four hours later adding his own commentary. Made no mention of Arseblog but simply said “Jack Wilshere was speaking at the BGC Charity Day at Canary Wharf raising money for Great Ormond Street”. Good work!
seems like you caught us again, blogs. but the bit where jack said, wenger is a bit like me,really made me chuckle…
“Wilshere has started every game for club and country this season retaining the faith of both Arsene Wenger and Roy Hodgson who’ve been treated to flashes of the quality he promised when he burst on the scene as a 16-year-old.”
Slight error there, he didn’t feature v Leicester.
Otherwise, a fantastic article as always
I think he’s playing well enough that we need not risk Ramsey. If Ramsey is even a slight doubt we should go with Wilshere and Arteta deep, Ozil at 10.
If Wenger puts Ozil on the left again, I’ll… well I can’t do anything, really. But I’ll be annoyed. Very annoyed. That’ll show Wenger.
He’ll be sorry when half the supporters are in a mental hospital, rocking back & forth, mumbling the words “Play Ozil central…..” over & over & over
Wilshere: “Noting that it’s rare for big business to be done between the Premier League’s top four…”
Sorry but I just had to criticize Wilshere for one thing. WHEN THE FUCK DID MANURE END IN THE TOP 4 LAST SEASON?!?!?! Damn, at least look at the god damn premier league table.
Well other then that small tiny mistake with regards to a mid-table club, that was a good interview by Wilshere, shows that he is growing up well into a mature man, can only say that it is a good thing for the Gunners.
George Carlin, is that you?????
Wilshere has said your two penny opinion does not impact even his outer ear. So, why dont you spare your dirty comments for the Manshitty fans after we wallapp them?
“Wilshere has started every game for club and country this season” he didn’t play against Leicester.
Honestly football these days is baffling to me. How do you determine who is a “world class” player? What’s the criteria that qualifies a player as world class? I’m not directing this comment at Jack in particular but football in general. Nobody has been able to tell me what world class means every time I ask this question
your class needs to be out of this world and hence world class. 😛
if the class is out of this world, logic dictates it cant be world class, no? since its outside.
who said were limited to this world? jesus man have some ambition 😉 many worlds and we’re class in all of them
Exactly from the outside its world class 😛
Whatever you want it to be. It can be merely a good International or some define it as top 5 in their position, generally anyone who uses it is being vague and wishy washy about something, so the definition isn’t particularly important.
It’s usually just someone who happens to be one of the best in their given position. We have quite a few such players now, more than we’ve had since the Invincibles in my opinion.
i would have thought its fairly simple, recognized around the ‘world’ as ‘class’ or in that ‘class’ of top players. i would imagine to determine if youre in that class there has to be an almost unanimous recognition of the undeniable quality, or in some cases they are not recognized but influence games on a regular bases
Walk the talk jack.Give us the win this saturday.
I’m actually not Olli
Apologies, my bad re: the ‘every game’ line. Corrected now. Cheers to those who pointed it out.
@ Henry !Chance Goal !!!
A ‘ world class player’ is a player who happens to be flavour of the month, chosen by someone with cabbage for brains, Jamie Redknapp for example.
Hope that clears that up.
Jamie Redknapp has sh*t for brains.
Hope that clears that up.
Whoa cool. Blogs, out of interest why doesn’t Arsenal offer prominent blogs more access to players for interviews and the like? Do media have to pay for access to players or something? (N.b I don’t really know jack (ha!) about how media works in Engerlund).
Arseblog news hound..how many puffs of your cigarette did you give him for that exclusive…;)
That’s what I call some good hounding around
is the picture part of the rainbowlaces campaign?
I would say world class is a player who would walk into any top team in the world
So there are only 11 World class players?
For me, “world class” is being one of the top 5 players in the world in your position. Top 10 if we’re stretching it.
a top team/club is 25 players isnt it? so 25 not 11, thats a little closer, but personally id call world class any of the top 100 players, covering every position so for example 1 ramsey 2 nueur and so on
No, not 11 world class players only, because there are certain players in certain positions whom you could not choose between, and then there are many formations where you would choose between one player or another for striker for example. Also, a squad is made up of 25 players. Even then, I would not say there are only 25 world class players, but that is the point – these are players who fit a category which it is rare to find in any other player. It’s difficult to say really, but I would say ‘world class’ are players who have… Read more »
Theoretically I agree with you but with different systems/styles of play, that’s not really actually possible.
Shaping up well to be a potential future captain of Arsenal!!
Got to respect the lad, he’s a strong willed guy!
He’s a Capricorn he is stubborn ! That can be a positive and a negative And in this case it’s a positive.
For the benefit of the press who use to squeal about our lack of local content : Number of British players in Arsenal’s first team : 7 (Jack, Ramsey, Chambers, Ox, Walcott, Gibbs and Welbeck) Number of French players who provide our grit : 7 (Koscielny, Flamini, Giroud, Debuchy, Sanogo, Coquelin and Diaby) Number of Germans to add efficiency : 4 (Podolski, Per, Gnabry, Ozil) Number of Spaniards for a bit of technical flare : 4 (Santi, Arteta, Monreal, Bellerin) Number of Centro/South Americans : 4 (Campbell, Alexis, Ospina, Martinez) Number of Centro Europeans : 2 (Rosicky, Szsc) Just in… Read more »
You forgot Jenkinson.
No players from Antarctica? We must be doing something wrong.
Number of fingers Jack’s going to hold up to certain journalists/pundits tomorrow after putting in a man-of-the-match performance for our victory over Man $hitty: 3
i would of thought the correct pun would have been 1 but you were spot on with the man of the match proformance
#findramblingpete
I saw that John Terry was also at the BGC Charity event, I don’t suppose you managed to hit the cunt in the face did you Arseblog News? Eh, eh?
How good is that Sergi Samper kid, better than Wilshere at 19?… To the LaLiga B fans ITK
as a one time biology gcse student… how do you hit a cunt in the face? just curious, could be useful… diagram would be nice
Wilshere and welbeck played well for england also not forgetting ox who has pace to, arsenal team can be more of a team with pace plus keep the defence in good form against these other teams attacking coyg