Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has admitted his surprise at Arsene Wenger’s decision to send Jack Wilshere out on loan.
The 24 year-old joined Bournemouth on a season-long loan on Deadline Day yesterday, joining former youth team-mate Benik Afobe on the south-coast.
The England international has fallen down the pecking order at the Emirates in recent seasons, due to a number of arrivals, and his regular injury setbacks have halted his progress.
He will now get the chance to find form and fitness, but Paul Merson believes the time away from the club could work against them.
The former Gunner has also revealed that he is surprised by him being allowed to leave.
“I was shocked they let him go,” Merson said.
“If I am 1-0 down with ten minutes to go, who do I want to come on: Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Jack Wilshere?
“Jack Wilshere is the one that can make things happen, especially in a tight game where teams are sitting 11 behind the ball.”
“He will be hurting, I know he said he wants to go out on loan but when I was around you went for a month or two months or three months. A year is a long time.
“My worry is will he lose the love of Arsenal. He could easily look at this and think, why am I the one going out on loan?”
Could Jack the Lad, who is considered Arsenal through and through, really fall out of love with our club? Would you have preferred to see Oxlade have gone out instead?
Pat J
I think this is a great move. Is he better than the other midfielders? Not at the moment. He needs game time and he can’t get that at arsenal right now. I really like jack and I wish him the best of luck this year.
Wilshere needs consistent match play
Sitting on the bench and playing league/fa cup matches isn’t enough
Wilshere is a top quality player and if he can perform well at Bournemouth for six months perhaps he can challenge the starters at Arsenal
If he doesn’t perform well than at least he had a shot
Please stop crying for a plAyer who is gone. 147 minutes of football in 2 years, 7 goals in 8 years and £90.000 a week, I honestly think he love Arsenal for that reason.
@frisco
Exactly…Jack only took the move to Bournemouth get game time in order to catch Sam’s eye for the National team.
I think it’s a bad decision and it’s true what Merson says. If you want to change a game with something different you bring on Jack. All our other midfielders are a bit samey.
It’s a poor decision, if anyone get rid of Ramsay. He has nothing to offer other than that one season and when he plays for Wales. Aw always plays him when fit and he doesn’t really cut it anymore, much prefer Jack.
People need to stop believing their own hype, especially English players. Respect toJack for bringing himself back to Earth and try work his way back up and to Wenger for being shrewd enough to allow him leave. Truth is if Wilshere stayed behind he will get ample gametime in any case if he stays fit but would not necessarilly mean he’ll grow as a player or bring anything special to the team, a loan move allowsf for fresh perspective from all parties and provides a platform growth.
Why is this convo not being had about Joel Campbell wilshire being a game changer is a fantasy . Both him and Arsenal made the right decision to loan him
@jermaineBryan
Spot on…But we know the answer to that. Joel is not English. Had he been, then he’d be on the team sheet every match, regardless of form…Plus, he’d be given 10-12 years to “develop”
Are Chambers and Jenkinson not English, what about Gibbs too who lost his place to a Spaniard. My bad, I can never understand this British v English thing fully. Joel asked to leave, Id say Joels situation was more about off field form than it was on the field. We gave him enough loans already and we brought him to Europe in the first place. We pay him allot of money too, so fighting for a place is not too much to ask, we only got one season from him and he wants gone already.
@Break-on-Through
Then explain how Joel, a natural winger gets bumped for Aaron, Jack or Ox, all supposed midfielders,who haven’t got half of his engine or skill set on the wings…
Joel got tired of being benched for these clowns and wanted game time. So he put in for the loan. Instead of waiting for one of them to get crooked, again…
I just explained it.
Remember everyone was happy to say he took a parting shot at ox and Jack, but Rosicky was happy to play bench and he knew what was required at biggest clubs, like Parlour he knew you put the club before yourself. Who is Joel to take a swipe at better players who put the club first. Joel has an attitude problem, he will never put Arsenal ahead of himself. Ramsey is better than Joel, teams fear losing a Ramsey if he’s not played, they don’t fear losing a Joel. Wilshere didn’t play f all last season, you made that one up, Joel played over 25 games. And Ox he is in competition with him, you say Joel should start but the manager gave both of them plenty of games.
This is a great move!
1. He gets guaranteed minutes if he is fit at Bournemouth, they might figure out how to teach him that avoiding tackles is actually in his best interest as well
2. We have a packed midfield already with players that are going to bench him unless he gets a good run of form.
3. He does more for Arsenal as a whole by helping take points off our opposition and he definitely improves Bournemouth.
“If I am 1-0 down with ten minutes to go, who do I want to come on: Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Jack Wilshere?”
Errrm, I’m sure Jack Wilshere himself is 100% happy with this scenario for the rest of his career.
He’s got a great chance to enhance his career at B’mouth. If he does well and stays injury free, he won’t be that guy who’s coming on 10 minutes to go. He’s the guy who goes off 10 minutes to go.
@J McLovin
1 nil down, 10 minutes to go, Jack ain’t the man who will be comin off the bench…
I don’t often agree with Merse but in this case I do. He hit the nail saying which one of those would you prefer seeing coming on. Ox you just don’t know what he’ll be like, Walcott is similar and usually only good in an open game. At least Jack will win you a free kick in a dangerous area, and he’s good at playing in tight spaces. I was really surprised Arsene let him go. If Jack ends up with a full season of football and starts turning heads well then it might be worth it, but if we end up losing Cazorla and Xhaka for a spell we might regret it.
The only reason why Jack wasn’t getting any game time at Arsenal was obviously because he was always injured! ?
What makes people think that anything will change whilst he is at Bournemouth? ? i doubt that the sea air will cure him from being injury prone.
And if by some miracle he does manage to play more than 10 games for Bournemouth this season, then surely the finger has to be pointed back at Arsenal’s training methods for being the main reason for our injuries? ?
Time will tell.
Or the training pitches ar too hard, as suggested by rio ferdinand and others.
@jonm
It is well known that the pitch at the Emirates, is one of the best groomed in the League…
Apparently the pitch at the emirates is very hard. The training pitches match the emirates as closely as possible. The theory is that the continual jarring whilst training over many years causes injuries. Apparently Martin Keown and Rio Ferdinand have made this comment.
” best groomed” has nothing to do with hardness.
All our pitches are hard because they are semi synthetic, and arsene has been criticised by fitness experts in the past over his outdated ideas all adding up to fragile players struggling with us.
Somethings got to change or perhaps our new signings can make hardy replacements for the bone china of old
@FcG
Why is it that only the English players are the ones to be crocked every year, for no reason at all mostly? All the other players usually pick up a knock or 2 during match play…
Which might suggest they’re to fragile to handle AFC’s training methods…
I’m almost positive that Merson spoke positively on the move last night on Sky Sports. Or maybe I dreamt it which would be even more concerning