Arsenal legend Ray Parlour says that he hopes against hope that the club are able to convince Jack Wilshere to stay with the Gunners. Wilshere’s contract expires at the end of this month and player and club remain deadlocked. But Parlour, who, like Jack, came through the Arsenal academy, hopes an arrangement can still be found.
Speaking to Arseblog News at the launch of the new away kit, Parlour said, “I hope he stays, I really do. Like me, he came through the ranks and I think it’s always good to have players in your squad who have come through the system. But it’s all down to Jack Wilshere, he’s the man that’s going to make that final decision.
“I’m sure plenty of clubs would be interested in Jack because he’s a tremendous player. Obviously injuries have held him back but that seems to be behind him now. We all know the qualities that he has. I’m hoping he’s got one of these shirts on next season!” Parlour concludes, gesturing towards the new away shirt.
Parlour, who spent 14 years in the Gunners’ first team, says he is excited to see how some of the current squad perform under the gaze of a new coach. “I am really excited to watch Aubameyang next season, I think he’s such a top player. He’s showed that he’s a true finisher, next season I could see him being up there in the reckoning for the Golden Boot. He’s that good.
“But there are lots of players I am looking forward to seeing. Bellerin has gone off the boil a little bit compared to what he did two seasons ago, so we want to see him getting back to his best. I’m really intrigued to see what kind of formation Emery is going to play- whether he will go three or four at the back. We all have to wait and see at the moment.”
One player Unai Emery is reportedly keen to eke the best from is Aaron Ramsey, who has one year left on his Arsenal contract. Parlour says that he hopes Ramsey isn’t pushed further forward in Emery’s system, “I prefer him in a slightly deeper role. He’s got so much energy and he’s so great at making those late runs from deep, like Lampard used to do.
“I think you lose a bit of that when he plays in the number 10 position. He’s such an important player and as a midfielder myself, I can say it’s so difficult to pick those players up that arrive late in the penalty area. When he plays in the 10, it’s a little easier to mark him, but he has to have the right person alongside him.”
The Romford Pele is happy enough with the Gunners’ goalkeeping situation however, “There were a few question marks with Petr Cech, who made a few mistakes last season. But he’s still a top class goalkeeper who has experience of big, big games. I’m happy with Petr Cech, we’ll see if the manager is. He might decide there are other areas where he wants to be spending money.”
I literally agree with everything he said.
No Ray, he’s not “a tremendous player” .
Errr, yes he IS
cheapest option is to keep Jack, I guess. I’m not sure he’s going to be more than a squad player…don’t think we can rely on him week in/out.
Who is everybody picking for the World Cup? I’d love to see Iceland win it, but I know I’m dreaming. I think France will crash out earlier than expected and Wenger will become their coach after the tournament 🙂
I hate most teams.
less so with France, so maybe I’ll cheer ’em.
But I hope we see a surprising underdog team as champions.
My heart says Brazil but my head says Spain. Nigeria and Egypt may surprise people too.
I can’t ‘cheer’ England when it contains so many utter pricks that I despise during the regular season. I should be mature enough to rise above that but I’m a lost cause.
I am also skeptical, but still believe France can go very far. Maybe not all the way, but they are kind of my ‘dark horse’ favorites rather than those teams that get talked about most often (Brazil, Spain, Germany, etc.)
Thanks for the support mate : *
As a Scotsman ill also be giving my support to Iceland being the nearest supportable team geographically.
My wild card would be Belgium.
Brazil outperform everybody in defence by a long margin, hard to see past them.
I like Ray but 50% of what he says is bollox unfortunately. Wilshere gives us nothing and Cech is becoming a liability. He’s spot regarding Ramsey and Auba though.
just who gives us anything at arsenal
I’ll say they all try their best.We get it,you love jack.we do too.but injury and his development as a player just haven’t been what we hoped for.its a shame but sometimes a clean break is the best for both parties.and also we have a quite a few genuine english prospects coming through the academy.Hopefully they’ll heal the jack shaped scar overtime 🙂
Yea yea, no one other than your perennial idol, Wilshere.
Parlour is one of the few ex players that doesn’t constantly bag our squad.
so say ALL of us ray
Wilshere has done nothing to warrant a new deal since the 2011/12 season
That’s a stretch.he is still a good squad option.we made him an offer according to that.However,I still believe if jack gets a good playing season next year,and manages to stay free from injury from now on,he can surpass that and become a very useful player for any of the top six.but he won’t get that chance at arsenal if we sign a new cm and ramsey stays.which is why he isn’t signing the contract and wants assurance from emery.but i think we all know whats going to happen by the end of this month.
It amazes me how people say such things with total certainty. It’s not so long since many were voicing similar opinions about Ramsey, and now look at what they’re saying! Personally, I’d like very much to see what Emery can get out of Wilshere. He’s had this contract thing hanging over his head for a while now, and I hope he signs and concentrates on playing his way back into a regular starting option. At his best (which admittedly we haven’t seen much of recently) he’s top quality. There were a lot of surprised / disappointed voices from fans outside… Read more »
After 7 seasons of Jack Wilshere I can say with certainty that he is injury prone, probably isn’t built for a high pressing team and cannot be relied upon to play three games in a week, and he should currently be within his peak years. Rambo and Wilshere aren’t defensive midfielders and Ozil isn’t a winger. That means we either move Ozil wide? And play someone who’s on £320,000 p/w out of position?or only one of Rambo+Wilshere can play at one time? Rambo tends to pick up hamstring strains that can keep him out for extended periods, if we’re then… Read more »
nor has ozil, but I don’t hear anyone criticising him, why is that
I’ve been hoping for quite a few years that Jack would come good and become a top top player but this second half of the season wasn’t good for him, he really struggled and rightly didn’t make the world cup squad. Possibly a good squad player but not our main man in the middle, we need more than he’s got at this moment.
Bonaroca:- My first World Cup match was when I was visiting Scotland and was lucky to see the great Pele in his first match on TV. Over here I have to watch all the matches on TV but although I wish England to win that Trophy in Russia, I don’t think they have what it takes. Admittedly, Souhgate is doing a good job, but I think he went for building a good National Team needs a good feedback and follow the German Lowe policy, as they say new comers have to build up on some once other experience and Mr… Read more »
It’s funny that it’s popular to bash Jack on here now when, around Christmas time, we were all saying he was world class and he was going to save our season! And if he signs we’ll all be saying he’s world class again! Truth is he’s a very talented player that’s been understandably hampered by long absences (though he made 38 appearances this season and was available for many more). IMO he’s also unfortunately been messed about by the club. Instead of playing silly beggars, most teams would have either given him what he wanted or shipped him but we’ve… Read more »
Ditto Ray
I think this means Ray hopes Wilshere only plays in away games.
We should sell Jack while we can still get some money for him, before his ankles give in completely. Apparently he wants “assurances” from the new coach, his sense of entitlement, created by Wenger, is immense. I want to see a meritocracy, and Jack is a squad player at best.
He’s out of contract, we won’t get any money for him
OOps, forgot about that, just let him go then.
So let a squad player go for free and buy in a replacement squad player? Thank fuck you’re not in charge.
NO ozil is a squad player at best, if we should sell anybody it has got to be ozil, the money we would save on him would be tremendous, we buy two far better players with the money we got from him