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Sending Wilshere on loan is too little, too late by Wenger

Jack Wilshere’s time at Arsenal seems to be up, at least temporarily. With a couple of days of the transfer window left, he will be allowed to leave on loan. There are two main reasons for this, one would have thought. With Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin and Granit Xhaka fit and ready, Wilshere is not even second choice when one of them is injured. Secondly, he is perennially unfit - perhaps different surroundings could give him a chance to rebuild his fitness.

But there are other possible reasons. The most compelling is that this is the politic way to get rid of Wilshere, finally. There are more than enough arguments to justify selling him from the squad, to move him on somewhere closer to his current level.

What might be the biggest motivator for Wenger, and should be if it isn’t, is that Wilshere simply doesn’t behave in a way that he needs to, when he’s off the pitch. It’s fun to look back at the past, and see players famous for boozing their evenings away and making the most of their looks, fame and wages, but beyond the downside of those who took it too far for their long-term health, those that indulge now are left behind by more committed competition. Smoking and drinking infrequently are no great problem, but doing so consistently obstructs and delays recovery if overdone. Wilshere has a track record of being caught in scrapes (both in front of and behind wheelie bins), with booze, and with cigarettes. Compare that to his injury record, and you would forgive Wenger seeing causation where there is at the very least, correlation.

It’s not like Wenger will miss him when he is on the pitch, either. Wilshere certainly has the gait of Gazza, at his most willowy. He’s got impressive close control and technique for an English player, and when he gets his head up, he drives forwards with his tyrannosaurus arms and barrel chest. It’s occasionally effective, and it’s something to build on, but it isn’t the only thing he has in common with Gazza. Like Gascoigne, though, he has a propensity to launch himself into daft tackles. It brings red cards, bookings, aggro, and most importantly for Wilshere himself, injuries. Given that his ankles already appear to be made of lacquered cotton, he should be keeping himself out of mischief, and not going out of way to injure himself in that which he creates. Wilshere is already susceptible to length recoveries and injuries incurred in training, so there’s little point keeping around a player who brings more trouble on himself out of choice. Add to that off-pitch behaviour which only exacerbates the situation, and you can see why Wenger may want rid for a year.

Then, there is his mentality. Paul Scholes might have rapidly descended into Lawrenson-style mardiness, always complaining about young people and their loud music, but his appraisal of Wilshere a couple of seasons ago seemed entirely correct. He compared him, at 22, to the player he was at 17. The player at 17 was full of promise, brilliantly unEnglish, and fearless for his age. At 22 he was still the same thing. His promise was still enormous, but he had just a sliver of time to cram all that improvement into until he was a borderline waste, approaching the golden years of a has-been. Nice to look at, but the worry was that this was the beginning and end of his talents. Wilshere eventually spoke to Scholes, but either through lack of commitment, injuries hampering his progress, or both, no improvement was forthcoming.

It is these two things that must separate Wilshere from the rest of the Arsenal squad because, simply put, his other failings are those that you would find in most of them, too. The inability to win consistently against title rivals is well established and, going by the Liverpool game, currently immovable. The desire to dick about on social media, not limited just to Arsenal footballers, or footballers generally, is still there, despite their constantly underwhelming performances. His utter, utter mediocrity does not set him apart from an Arsenal that continues to use Nacho Monreal, Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck. Others are variously belligerent, injured, and resistant to improving their performances, but Wilshere is presumably a target because he personifies each of these negative traits.

The question is, then, why Wenger is happy simply to loan him out rather than bomb him out entirely. One reason might be that by sending him on loan and watching him fail in another environment, he has greater evidence to use against those who might resist the departure. Secondly, should he dramatically improve, he can bring him back and justify the loan in that way - the downside is no greater than keeping him at the Emirates, but the potential upside is asymmetrically positive. Perhaps, with only a couple of seasons left of his career, this is Wenger’s final attempt to shift the team out of the sloth he has allowed to flourish. It’s hardly ruthless, but it’s more meaningful than Wenger has ever managed before. Perhaps - it seems unlikely - others will take note and redouble their efforts. It is difficult to work out what more Wenger can do with little time left, and little money spent.