JACK WILSHERE is still 19 but already he radiates authority in an Arsenal side short on leadership. “One hundred per cent it will be a disaster if we don’t win a trophy next season,” he says. “We know that. The fans feel it. We feel it. We just need to win a trophy.”
Normally a manager would be straight on the phone to a teenager making such expectation-raising declarations, but Arsene Wenger must know his young English playmaker is right. As he prepared to join the England camp for Saturday’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Switzerland at Wembley – scene of Barcelona’s demolition of Manchester United over the weekend – Wilshere hummed with a kind of constructive frustration at the collapse across four fronts of Arsenal’s campaign.
“We’re a big club and we need to be winning trophies and we need to win them to keep our big players. Sooner rather than later,” he said. By “big” names he must mean Cesc Fabregas, who is doubtless more homesick than ever for Catalonia.
“He’s our best player. In some of our games he has been our best player by a mile and we need to keep our best players if we want to win things. He’s the club captain; he likes Arsenal.
“I’m sure he wants to be at Arsenal. I’m sure if they can reach an agreement then I’m sure he’ll want to stay. He needs to stay.”
But after Saturday’s Champions League final, the Camp Nou lure can hardly have faded?
Wilshere says: “He’s been over in England eight years, but Barcelona is his home. It’s hard for him so I can understand where he’s coming from. But he’s the Arsenal captain and he’s been great this season and we hope he can be great next season.”
An obvious virtue in Wilshere’s make-up is a lack of fear, in word and deed, and the kind of forthright language he brings to his analysis of Arsenal’s six fallow years extends to the psychology of the team. He even pleads guilty to a charge of fragility.
“Yeah, I think we are and some of our players would be the first to admit that. We’ve been too nice in defending. I’ve heard Bacary Sagna say this year we’ve been too nice and we have to be a bit more nasty, especially on set-pieces.”
Wilshere has been press-ganged into a semi-midfield holding role by Fabio Capello, but will probably establish his fame as a more marauding presence. “My perfect formation would be 4-3-3 with one holding and then the two going forward. I would be one of the ones going forward. Like we played against Wales, with Scotty Parker holding and me and Frank Lampard.”
Wilshere could even pack his 2012 summer with a place in the GB team at the London Olympics. “It’s a long way away, but we’ll see. If it comes up it’s a once-in-lifetime opportunity.”
But surely Wenger would go loco? Wilshere smiles. “I know.”
Guardian Service
