Move over Theo Walcott...

Pepe LeFrits

Jack Wilshere is in town.

I thought this warranted a thread of its own because I think he is something special and some people like to know about these things!

Young Jack replaced Robin van Persie with 10 minutes remaining today and in doing so became Arsenal's youngest ever league player, beating a record that had stood for 55 years. Born 1st Jan 1992, he is 16 years and 256 days old. Cesc Fabregas is still the club's youngest ever player but his early appearances came in the Carling Cup; he did not make a league appearance until after his 17th birthday - which gives you an idea of how highly Wilshere is rated.

Chelsea have already apparently tried to sign him and it probably won't be for the last time. Pretty much every time I've seen him I've been very, very impressed. He is a left-footed attacking midfielder who generally plays in the hole or on the right wing (watch out Theo!), occasionally on the left too. He's like a cross between Joe Cole and Alex Hleb, but unlike Hleb he scores a lot of goals. He scored against Stuttgart in pre-season and generally was one of our best players in those games, excelling in particular against Real Madrid. He is small and quick, has terrific touch, good dribbling, passing and crossing ability, excellent vision and a very good shot.

At the start of the season he took over the #19 shirt vacated this summer by Gilberto Silva. I saw this in the Guardian today:

'I bring them out slowly, these English players,' smiled Wenger. 'He's another one who will soon play for you.'

I think he is probably a bigger talent than Walcott.

eagle eye

I watched the match live as well and the commentator asked his co commentator if he could become another Theo because he was another teenage big money signing by Arsenal. Blah blah blah, who cares?

Very unoriginal thread title.

OPENROAD

eagle eye wrote: »

I watched the match live as well and the commentator asked his co commentator if he could become another Theo because he was another teenage big money signing by Arsenal. Blah blah blah, who cares?

Very unoriginal thread title.

Then the co commenator had it wrong, he wasn't signed, came up through the ranks.

~Rebel~

Commentator was probably talking/thinking about Ramsey.

I sense this thread being the new MrJoeSoap 's Gareth Bale

To be fair though, has looked very good whenever i've seen him. Very quick to spot a pass and very composed on the ball.

Helix

did he not play before? thought he did

~Rebel~

Helix wrote: »

did he not play before? thought he did

he played in a lot of the preseason friendlies (emirits cup etc) anyway, might be thinking of that?

Pepe LeFrits

eagle eye wrote: »

Very unoriginal thread title.

Oh noess!!!!!!!11111

OPENROAD

I think Jack is going to be a very special player, really looking forward to our league cup campaign to see him, he might get the odd sub appearance in the league but Arsene certainly won't rush him.

PHB

To me, he looks like an extremely talented player. What's more, he looks desperately like the type of players that England needs to start producing.

eirebhoy

Could he hack the physical part of the game? He looks about 12.

Pighead

eirebhoy wrote: »

Could he hack the physical part of the game? He looks about 12.

That's still about four years older than Soljskaer looked and he did ok. Arshavin looks like a baba too.

Galvasean

eirebhoy wrote: »

Could he hack the physical part of the game? He looks about 12.

Well they said the same about Nasri. He has had a good start so far.

rossie1977

OPENROAD wrote: »

Then the co commenator had it wrong, he wasn't signed, came up through the ranks.

a player coming through the ranks these days at a top club and establishing himself in the first team ala owen, carragher, fowler, gerrard, mcmanaman, scholes, giggs, beckham, terry etc???

i will believe it when i see it :P

Galvasean

rossie1977 wrote: »

a player coming through the ranks these days at a top club and establishing himself in the first team ala owen, carragher, fowler, gerrard, mcmanaman, scholes, giggs, beckham, terry etc???

i will believe it when i see it :P

Ashley Cole did it.

then fúcked off

gosplan

rossie1977 wrote: »

a player coming through the ranks these days at a top club and establishing himself in the first team ala owen, carragher, fowler, gerrard, mcmanaman, scholes, giggs, beckham, terry etc???

i will believe it when i see it :P

Yeah, except the youngest of those is now 28. Wilshere, as mentioned, is 16.

rossie1977

Galvasean wrote: »

Ashley Cole did it.

then fúcked off

that was ten years ago though, a lifetime in modern football, i can't remember the last player to come through at a big club and really establish themselves like those guys

wenger is great at identifying players at other clubs at a very young age (something other managers especially in england aren't)

rossie1977

gosplan wrote: »

Yeah, except the youngest of those is now 28. Wilshere, as mentioned, is 16.

???

whats that got to do with anything, i mentioned players that came through the ranks at top clubs, made their debuts at 17 and went on to become the first names on teamsheets and england regulars

english players have not come through the ranks at top clubs in the last 7-8 years, thats a fact, despite the likes of Man utd, liverpool and arsenal spending untold millions on academies and liverpool and arsenal winning the youth cup 4 times in the last 8 years between them

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Yeah i really think he's going to be something special too. Has been a buzz around him ever since the reserves match last year against west ham(see below). He looks really small but so far anyway he seems to be able to hold his own and has very good balance when challenged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITVSdAzBjXY

Galvasean

rossie1977 wrote: »

english players have not come through the ranks at top clubs in the last 7-8 years, thats a fact.

Jack Wilshire?

gosplan

rossie1977 wrote: »

???

whats that got to do with anything, i mentioned players that came through the ranks at top clubs, made their debuts at 17 and went on to become the first names on teamsheets and england regulars

english players have not come through the ranks at top clubs in the last 7-8 years, thats a fact, despite the likes of Man utd, liverpool and arsenal spending untold millions on academies and liverpool and arsenal winning the youth cup 4 times in the last 8 years between them

Mistook you post for sarcasm I'd say.

Pepe LeFrits

The 90 minute rule is the reason for that.

Tom65

The scary thing is the 2002 World Cup is probably the first World Cup he remembers. Young 'uns these days, eh?


I think he looks very, very promising. I saw him play in that Emirates Tournament thing and he was hugely impressive. I can't remember if it was against Real Madrid or Juve (probably Madrid, I think), but he came on as a sub and instantly ploughed into Sergio Ramos and nicked the ball off him. Then he skinned a couple of Real players.

Pepe LeFrits

Tom65 wrote: »

The scary thing is the 2002 World Cup is probably the first World Cup he remembers. Young 'uns these days, eh?

hehe yeah I LOL'ed when I saw this on his Arsenal.com profile:

He joined Arsenal in 2001 as a nine-year-old

Jaysis, I started uni that year :pac:

jank

Going to be a special player alright!

leninbenjamin

based on what I've seen he's already better than most premiership squad players. he could probably play a fairly sizeable role this year if Arsene wanted to, although i know he wont; it's just a reflection on how good this boy can be. it's not fair to compare him to Walcott or anyone like that as he's a different player, very unique for an Englishman i think.

what i'm more worried about is that Arsene might leave the club half way through his development

AnCapaillMor

Hopefully he'll keep his feet on the ground and not end up crashing cashleys car when drunk and with a driving ban.

yahoo_moe

rossie1977 wrote: »

wenger is great at identifying players at other clubs at a very young age (something other managers especially in england aren't)

Well, his previous club was probably some park team somewhere - he's been at Arsenal since he was 9 or so.

gustavo

rossie1977 wrote: »

that was ten years ago though, a lifetime in modern football, i can't remember the last player to come through at a big club and really establish themselves like those guys

Messi
De Rossi
Iniesta

Pepe LeFrits

Wilshere has scored on his first start for Arsenal tonight against Sheffield United.

Not the youngest ever scorer though, Fabregas beats him by just under 2 months on that one.

Galvasean

Wilshire and Walcott to lift the World Cup.

>_>


To the bookmakers!