Arsenal: Jack Wilshere misses the mark with misguided apology

Jack Wilshere, in his routine social media apology to fans for Arsenal’s performance in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, questioned some of Craig Pawson’s decisions. He missed the mark. Badly.

Arsenal’s performance in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester City was utterly unacceptable. There is no other way to put it. It is deserving of an apology.

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Obviously, given the vociferous nature of social media, the increased scrutiny that modern players are coming under, and the ease at which they can see it, and the controversy surrounding Arsenal Fan TV and Hector Bellerin — whatever you may think of the situation, it is still a debate that intensifies the relationship between the players and the fans –, there was little said in the immediate aftermath of the game.

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But on Monday, the day after the debacle, the first social media apologies began to stream through. The most contentious was Jack Wilshere’s. On both Twitter and Instagram, Wilshere, amid apologising, kind of, for his and his teammates’ performance, questioned the decisions of referee Craig Pawson. Here is what he put on Twitter, there is an extended version on Instagram, which you can find here, with the full tweet below, word for word (that is why there are a few typos and spelling errors):

"“Hard to put into words my emotions about yesterday. City are a good team and deserved to win yesterday. Alot of people have had thier say on us and we have to accept cristism when we loose. That being said i can’t accept some of the decisions that went against us yesterday…”"

Now, I am Wilshere fan. I believe in his character. I believe that he genuinely cares for the club. I believe that he loves the fans and feels sorry for them when things do not go Arsenal’s way. But this is a shocking apology.

For a start, he does not actually apologise. While he recognises that the performance was not good enough, he never actually says sorry. And then he chooses to focus his attention on the apparent refereeing mistakes that were made. They never existed.

Sergio Aguero did not foul Shkodran Mustafi for the first goal. Fernandinho should not have been sent off for a second yellow card. Leroy Sane did not influence the game and was therefore not offside during the second goal. Wilshere is just flat-out wrong. But what’s worse is that he does not stand up and simply apologise. As fans, that’s all we want. An admission that it was not good enough, an apology, and a proclamation that next time will be better. Wilshere did none of that. In fact, he made excuses.

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I still believe that Wilshere has the fans at heart. I still believe that he loves Arsenal football club, adores playing for them, and will commit his future to the organisation. But this was poor.