Arsenal and Jack Wilshere: Three months to save a career

Jack Wilshere, per Arsene Wenger, must prove that he can play at the top level between now and December. The midfielder has three months to save his Arsenal career.

Arsene Wenger is a patient man, especially with those he believes in. Abou Diaby, for example, was afforded chance after chance to prove that his body could handle the physical demands of the Premier League, only to falter time and time again. But Wenger was willing to wait, in the hope that he could fulfil his potential as the anchor of the Arsenal midfield.

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However, there comes a time when the patience must end and a decision must be made. That time has been and gone for Diaby, with the lanky, leggy Frenchman released in the summer of 2016. For Jack Wilshere, another who has benefitted from Wenger’s remarkably long wick, that time is now upon him.

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Speaking after Wilshere’s extremely impressive performance against BATE Borisov where he showed glimpses of rediscovering his very best form, Wenger stated that it is now imperative that Wilshere, for all that is at stake, can maintain his fitness and performance levels until December:

"“In this job, you need to have health. The requests and demands of the competition, physically, are so high and you can only be at your best if you can play at least 10 games on the trot. That’s what’s at stake for Jack Wilshere. He needs to keep his health and be capable of competing. If he can play from now until December at the top level, he will be back. If he has other set-backs then it will be more difficult. It’s a vital season because he’s nearing the end of his contract [and] it’s a World Cup year, so all that’s at stake for him.”"

It seems as though Wenger is willing to let Wilshere leave on a free at the end of the year if he feels that he cannot replicate his early-career abilities. He is using the fact that he is in the final year of his contract as a threat to invigorate and demand a response from the midfielder.

That suggests to me that Wilshere has been tasked with saving his Arsenal career. After a year on loan at 24, returning to the squad a long way down the midfield pecking order, and a career of hinting at the possibility of, and then failing to, build on his startling first season with the senior squad in 2011, that is not a necessarily groundbreaking statement. Of course, at 25, Wilshere must now save his career in North London.

But throughout the frustrations of his younger years, it often felt like he would be given innumerable chances to redeem himself, such is the admiration of Wenger with his natural ability. Perhaps, though, Wenger has finally grown weary of waiting.

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Like Diaby before him, Wilshere must prove his fitness before he can find his feet in the first team. Wenger has given him a deadline of December to do so. He has three months to save his career.