Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere has joined Bournemouth on a season long loan from Arsenal, it was confirmed on transfer deadline day.
On the face of it all makes good sense- Wilshere has spent an injury ravaged career at the Gunners and last season he completed just two games for the club. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger made it clear that Wilshere could leave for a years loan but not to a direct top 4 club. Wilshere’s decision came down to two Premier League clubs in the end with Crystal Palace and Bournemouth. Wilshere chose Bournemouth as rumour has it he has a best friend there and his sons god son is also within the club set up. Good deal perhaps and Wilshere still gets to stay in the Premier League.
But and there is always a but, Wilshere had the opportunity to have so much more. Italian’s Roma came in by mid day for his signature and then when Wilshere went cold on them Milan made their interest known by early evening- and he flatly turned them both down.
To a connoisseur of European football this seems rather odd and very puzzling. Both clubs have the right set ups, history an quality of players to have made Wilshere a better one. If being in Italy had not worked out then Wenger and Arsenal were waiting in the wings come next summer- but bottom line is that Wilshere as a football player would have become a better one. He had the instant chance to immerse himself in a different culture and experience something utterly different, something the common man would find difficult with the language barrier, so much so that even finding a small job would be a hard task. This opportunity was put right in front of the young Englishman and he walked away.
There is no doubt that Wilshere will be happy tonight, he is with friends and will stay in England which he obviously wanted. But as a person and football player one feels that he has made the wrong decision and in some ways his limited short sighted view sums up his career thus far, one with such promise that keeps reaching a dead end.
For Wilshere now the objective will be to keep fit and have a run of games for his new club enough at least to warrant the interest of England manager Sam Allardyce and get back into the England team. It will as always be an interesting season for the midfielder.