C’mon show some spunk, Arsenal mates!
The Arsenal midfielder shows why he might be the doyen of his generation. At a press conference when asked whether Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas would stay on he went completely unscripted.
“Loyalty is a big part of football and it shows if you are a real man or not.”
We cannot put a finer point on this. There is always this huge onus on bringing the right players to finally break that title drought. This is but an expensive and ill wrought substitute for belief in the club. Wilshere’s words are extremely important because this is the first time an Arsenal player has addressed a central theme in the club’s failure to cohere. He’s thrown down the gauntlet and demanded the rest of the players rally around the club. “Then we will see if we can get a trophy or not.” Very nicely put, Jack.
In an ideal world every time an Arsenal player goes out on the pitch they should remember who they are representing. Not an agent nor a sum of money. Football is a simple game, its instincts paradoxically are far more complex. But fealty should be the zero sum game.
Wilshere’s words are going down big in the Spanish media who are so used to the Barca players gaming the whole Fabregas saga with their own statements. Today was no different as Xavi vacationing in Ibiza with the Arsenal captain said he looked preoccupied with the whole situation. According to Xavi, Arsenal had given Fabregas permission to leave this year but were reneging on that promise. Wenger is now calling on him to publicly declare his unhappiness which he said will be the only way he would let him go. Fabregas is loth to do so as Wenger had dug in his heels and says he’s not here to make money but to keep his best players.
Here is the crux. What is Barcelona doing about it? They just signed Alexis Sanchez for close to £40m to be paid to Udinese in installments. Now that is what wanting a player looks like. Meanwhile, they are dilly dallying with Arsenal over Fabregas’s transfer fee. Forget about that lip service towards bringing down the debt and playing by the financial fair play rules. There is only one club that is creating all this unhappiness and it is not the English one.