After much talk, this week promises to be a huge week in the life of Jack Wilshere. He's in line to make his England debut at Wembley tomorrow night, albeit in a friendly which might see the national side barracked remorselessly- their only crime? Being slightly more crap than usual at the World Cup. Mind you, they do bring it on themselves, don't they? The captain of England and Liverpool the latest to open his mouth without engaging his brain when talking to the Match of the Day magazine. He said,
"[Lionel] Messi can do some amazing things, but anything he can do Joe can do as well, if not better. He used to shock us in training by doing footy tricks with a golf ball that most players can't even do with a football. I really fancy Joe for the [player of the year] award this season."
Right, so Joe Cole's prowess with a golf ball means that he's better at football than one of the most genius footballers in the modern era- that's a logical leap to make, isn't it Stevie G? Er, no, actually, it's not. Yes I would have liked to have seen us sign Joe Cole, but I don't think he's patch on a man who, at the risk of offending any religious types out there, puts the Messi in Messiah. I certainly don't see Joe Cole single handedly destroying us on Sunday afternoon the way that Messi did a few months back. And yes, you can remind me I said that if he proves me wrong on Sunday.
Back to Jack. The England debut alongside Keiran Gibbs would be enough to get excited about under normal circumstances, but as Messrs Song, Denilson and Diaby look increasingly unlikely to feature on Sunday afternoon, Jack may well be looking at his first Arsenal start. This is what the phrase "baptism of fire" was invented for, I believe. I'd feel more excited about his chances were he to be partnered by a central midfielder with first team experience, but by all accounts I'm going to be getting to know more about Emmanuel Frimpong. Starting on Sunday. This is not the jump off point for the new season that we wanted, but it seems to be the one we've got. Knowing our luck Wilshere will end up getting injured tomorrow night, most likely by Wayne Rooney.
That Wilshere is in line for any sort of action on Sunday is basically down to the fact that club captain Cesc only returned to training with Arsenal 5 days ago. No sooner do we get him back then he's off again with the Spanish national squad, flying out to Mexico- I'll say that again- to Mexico for a bloody friendly, three days before the new season starts! I know other clubs are in similar boats, but it strikes me as ridiculous in the extreme that FIFA have created a situation where we are without our club captain on the opening day of the season. We may at least have RvP available. Clearly, we're quite likely to be without Carlos Vela too, although he's had a bit more of a pre season than Cesc and, as yet, has not assumed the same importance to us as the captain. You feel that with Eduardo now out of the picture, not to mention Bendtner's medium term absence, this is a massive season coming up for our Mexican.
Bemusingly, the Shay Given link will not die- Given himself says it's too soon to talk about a move to Arsenal, wary of disrespecting the (Trade Description alert!) goalkeepers already on our staff. One of the more intriguing rumours on Twitter yesterday surrounded Martin O'Neil's departure. The story being that his abrupt resignation was down to not wanting to sell Brad Friedel to Fulham. That sale would, theoretically of course, allow Fulham to sell Mark Schwarzer to us. I'm not sure I believe that but let's run with it for a second. I may be alone on this, but whilst Schwarzer would, in my opinion anyway, be better than Almunia, I'd rather have Friedel than either of them. This speculation does point to a man in Arsène Wenger who at least knows he has a problem that needs resolving. Which must be encouraging for those of you who believe he is blind to it.
Finally for today, Nacer Barazite- the young Dutch forward who seems to be have been at Arsenal forever- has been taken up to Glasgow Rangers on a trial basis. I don't think Nacer will be adding to his three first team appearances for us, so I'll take this opportunity to wish him well during his time in Scotland and for the rest of his future career.
That's your lot!
From arsenal-mania.com
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