Arsenal: Jack Wilshere needs more than just fighting

While reports have suggested that Arsene Wenger has told Jack Wilshere he can leave, the unfulfilled 25-year-old wants to fight for his Arsenal career. Unfortunately, he’ll need much more than a fighting spirit to salvage his North London time.

The career of Jack Wilshere has been an extremely unfulfilling one. Once seen as the starlet of the youth system, a player that Cesc Fabregas, as he departed for Barcelona, described as the future of Arsenal football club, and Xavi heralded as the centrepiece on which English football should be built upon, Wilshere has slumped into a state of unwantedness and uselessness.

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It is an extremely sad state of affairs. Bursting onto the first-team scene with a hop, skip and a jump, he showed an effervescent love for the game that incessantly spilt into his game. He played with a buzz and a business that was infectious; his deceptive speed, especially over short spaces, his sharp, agile balance, his creativity and ingenuity on the ball. Wilshere was a remarkably enjoyable experience. He made football fun.

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And now, after six years of weak ankles and long rehabilitation, his career, or at least his Arsenal career, is seemingly in tatters. Arsene Wenger has, per reports, privately admitted to Wilshere that he can look for a new club, after loaning him out to Bournemouth last season, seeing the breadth and depth of his midfield options as too great an obstacle to his former favourite to ever enjoy meaningful minutes.

Rarely does Wenger loan out players of Wilshere’s age with the intention of bringing them back into the first-team fray a year later. Throughout his tenure, especially in recent seasons when he had the squad to flex his muscles and exploit the loan market, Wenger has allowed players to leave on-loan that he no longer sees fit as Arsenal players — Mathieu Debuchy, Wojciech Szczesny, Joel Campbell, Carl Jenkinson.

Wilshere, though, is wanting to fight for his place. As every player who loves the game as he does, he wants to play at the highest possible level. For him, there is no higher level than Arsenal. Unfortunately, the want, the will and the wish that he may have is not enough. He needs far more than a mere fighting spirit; he needs an opportunity, both in fitness and in time.

Wilshere cannot prove his quality on the pitch if he cannot get on the pitch. While he was fit for the majority of his spell at Bournemouth, he did end the year with a broken leg. It has been injuries that have crippled his career thus far. There is little reason to think they are about to subside.

Moreover, if Wenger is concrete in his decision that he no longer needs him, Wilshere will have to climb a long way up the pecking order if he is to see the light of day. The Arsenal midfield is strong and varied. There is far from an easy opportunity for Wilshere to earn playing time.

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His desire and his desperation may be to vindicate his talent. But the train may have already left the station. Wilshere is running along the platform, breathless, but fighting. Wenger is his conductor, and he needs to see more than mere effort to let him onboard.