Arsène Wenger has claimed that Jack Wilshere could one day manage Arsenal. The Frenchman has just sanctioned Wilshere’s season-long loan from the Emirates Stadium to Bournemouth and it has been possible to fear that the writing is on the wall for the 24-year-old at Arsenal. If he cannot break into the first-team now, why should it be any different in 12 months’ time?
But Wenger offered Wilshere a strong show of support, maintaining that he simply needed regular football at Bournemouth in order to recapture his best levels after all of the injury pain of recent seasons. Wenger has been unable to give Wilshere the assurance of regular minutes, possibly because he cannot wait for him to get back up to speed, and his short-term prospects look brighter at Bournemouth.
In the longer term, Wenger said that Wilshere’s career would be back at Arsenal and, when he was asked whether he saw him as a club captain, he went one step further. “Yes,” Wenger said, in answer to the captaincy issue, before he added: “Certainly, one day, he will be in my seat. He has a real football brain and understands football. It’s in his genes.”
Wenger was asked to clarify his comment about Wilshere sitting in the Arsenal manager’s seat. “I see him in the future at this club, of course,” he replied. “He will spend his life in football, he is a football man. He has an eye on everybody – it’s in him. You have that or you haven’t got it, but he is a real football man.”
The praise brought up the obvious question. Why, then, has Wenger allowed him to move to Bournemouth? His reply took in Wilshere’s ability and impatience, the competition for places at Arsenal and the situation that the player finds himself in after missing almost all of last season because of a fractured fibula.
“We have all been his age wanting to play football but we didn’t have Jack’s talent,” Wenger said. “You imagine what he must feel like when he cannot play, with everything he can do. It is very frustrating. What is at stake for him is just playing. He is not yet completely at his physical level. If you look at the number of games he has played recently, you cannot be at the competitive level he wants to be.
“I try always to combine the interests of the club and the interests of the player. In this case, that’s what I try to do. After, sometimes it doesn’t always come out as you want it to. But he is a real Arsenal man, as well. I hope that he plays 40 games and comes back here and plays for us.”
Wenger said that Wilshere was deeply hurt by his omission from Sam Allardyce’s first England squad – “I’m convinced by that,” he said – and the desire to regain his place by playing regular club football was one of the motivating factors behind his move to Bournemouth.
“I believe that Sam Allardyce says that Jack doesn’t play at the moment and I leave him out,” Wenger said. “I am convinced that played a part.”
Wilshere’s contract at Arsenal has two years to run and, partly to protect his value, Wenger will seek to extend his terms during the season, while he is at Bournemouth. “I want him to extend, yes,” Wenger said. “Will it happen soon? I don’t know. I think around December.”
