Arsenal: Jack Wilshere’s Future Has Never Been Clearer

Arsenal and Jack Wilshere were synonymous for so many years, for reasons good and bad. And now, despite the chatter, his future seems obvious.

Arsenal, and all of England, had high hopes for Jack Wilshere when he joined the Gunners as a wee lad. He had everything you could want in a midfielder and he loved his club. What could go wrong?

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Well, that’s a stupid question, because injuries went wrong and now he’s 25, on loan at Bournemouth and still nowhere near being a sure-fire Gunner, with a lengthy career and legendary status waiting on him at retirement.

But that doesn’t cast any sort of gloom upon the Englishman’s situation. In fact, I don’t think his future has ever been clearer. Which is funny, because just a month ago, I noted that Wilshere’s future was getting clearer by the day.

That article was in reference to the need for a challenge for Mesut Ozil. And given Arsene Wenger’s faith in Wilshere, as well as the latter’s strong run of form at the No. 10 spot for Bournemouth, it only made sense.

It doesn’t stop there, however. Wilshere should be seeing changes at Arsenal that spark his interest. For starters, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is getting runs throughout the central midfield. These are positions that Wilshere will be playing, if he comes back home.

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Then there is the matter of Santi Cazorla‘s questionable future. If it comes down to limiting Cazorla and promising Wilshere more chances or letting Wilshere move on and relying too heavily on Cazorla again, I don’t think you’d find too many voting for the latter over the former.

Francis Coquelin doesn’t seem to have that much going for him anymore other than being a late-match enforcer either. While he used to be a mainstay and a major competitor for Wilshere, he has since fallen off.

And then there is Mesut Ozil. Yes, he still needs that competition, but even more than that, if Wenger has been paying attention at all, he should have learned that when you limited Ozil’s minutes; when you actually try to monitor how much he is used, he does much better.

He looked fully rejuvenated against Lincoln and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same against West Brom.

Wilshere is a perfect candidate to take the lesser matches off of Ozil’s hands.

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Our rambunctious Englishman might not be so keen on declaring what his plans are for his future, but to me, it seems so obvious. There are a lot of things lining up in Wilshere’s favor this summer and next year could finally be his year (for real this time).