Bank holiday *boilk* to you all. I am as hungover as a Water Sheringham celebrating the death of more humans.
Arsenal won some silverware yesterday. The Emirates Cup came home. Hurrah. Hey, it’s been four years since we won a trophy, I’m taking what I can get.
In all seriousness though it was another good warm up game, a decent team performance, and one young man stood out. Jack Wilshere won man of the match for the second game in a row, scored two goals, played out of his little skin and gave the manager some serious thinking to do about how big a part he can play in the season ahead.
On the evidence of yesterday there’s no reason why this young man can’t play Premier League football for us this season. He’s matured a great deal and he showed in the two games how much talent he has. Arsenal fans should be very excited about what this lad can bring to the team in the seasons to come.
Arsene Wenger has certainly acknowledged the talent and the ability but at the same time he’s looking for people’s expectations to be realistic. And I think this is so important. There’s a tendency to build up young players after a couple of performances and then when they fail to reach those heights on a consistent basis people are very quick to write them off again.
The example I’d use is Denilson. His first few appearances for the club were fantastic. He came in, played well, ‘like another Cesc’ said people, but has since struggled for various reasons. Now he’s nobody’s idea of a new Cesc and is, perhaps, a victim of raised expectations. If there hadn’t been such hyperbole around his first few performances maybe people would have more patience with his progress.
Now, anyone who has watched football can tell you that there’s something special about Jack Wilshere. Whatever IT is, he’s got it. In spades. But how the club manage the next two or three seasons with him will be as likely to decide his future in the game than anything else. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders though, but he’ll need it and the club will need to protect him.
For example, the complete and utter twats at Sky yesterday. They’re talking him up for the England World Cup squad already. Christ, the lad hasn’t been in the Arsenal squad regularly yet. And to be fair when the cretinous Geoff Shreeves asked Jack in the post-match interview if he was aware Fabio Capello was watching he just said “I have to worry about getting into the Arsenal team first”. Sensible.
However, if he does start making appearances in the first team expect more of that kind of crap and it’s dreadfully unfair to young players. I think in this era of instant opinion fueled by blogs and forums and message boards that fans, not just Arsenal fans either, are far too quick to make judgements about players. I think we’re all guilty of it to an extent. And it seems to work the same way in the press now.
A series of three or four good games and a player is bigged up as ‘The next X, Y or Z’, international honours are just around the corner and a glorious career awaits. Some bad games and he’s rubbish, never the answer and obscurity beckons. So when Arsene Wenger pleads for calm and quiet surrounding Jack Wilshere I think we have to respect that.
By all means let’s be excited by his potential but let’s not build him up so high that when reality bites we’re not distraught and hysterical. His talent is obvious, but he’s just 17 and playing in a no pressure pre-season environment. League football is different, European football is different, and believe it or not he might not play well some days. So while there’s nothing we can do about what the press say or the hype merchants at Sky say, we can do the right thing and, like the manager says, respect his development.
Then we can all celebrate Jack’s ascension as our new God and worship him like the deity he is.
In other news transfer target Marouane Chamakh has flipped his lid over the way Bordeaux have prevented him leaving the club. Apparently he’s trying to force through a move to Arsenal and again it’d be typical of Arsene Wenger to talk about how we don’t need an attacker then sign him up. As Gunnerblog said rather nicely yesterday ‘ I’m concerned about the defence, but I’m not sure Arsene is’.
Manuel Almunia reckons we’re still better than Man City despite selling them Toure and Adebayor. That’s all fine and dandy, the problem is we need to be better than United, Chelsea and Liverpool.
There’s now a week of training ahead for the lads and then a game in Valencia on Saturday. The manager is still not ruling out the possibility of Vieira’s return and I suspect this might be an interesting week. We’ll see.
Right, painkillers, coffee and bacon. Liquidised. In a mug. The hungover breakfast of champions. Till tomorrow.
