Arsenal dodge a bullet as Wilshere has surgery at West Ham
Jack Wilshere has been poor at West Ham. Yesterday he had ankle surgery which could keep him out of action for six weeks. The story goes that the West Ham United owners only wanted to offer the injury-prone midfielder a one-year contract. But David Sullivan was reportedly coerced by new manager Manuel Pellegrini and his staff into offering the former Arsenal player a three-year deal worth an overly generous £80,000 a week.
The money is huge but just take a look at what Jack could have earned had all that early career promise panned out. According to Football Leaks: Uncovering The Dirty Deals Behind The Beautiful Game, Wilshere’s former Arsenal teammate, Alexis Sanchez, scored a £6.7m signing-on fee at Manchester United for leaving Arsenal. Factor in that 29-year-old Sanchez wanted to leave and his wage rocketed to just shy of £400,000 a week, and that signing on bonus looks unhinged. He also gets £75,000 for each game he starts. This is doubtless seen as an incentive for the titchy Chilean who shone in a plodding Arsenal side to turn up for work and not reason that £20m a year to watch daytime telly is living the dream.
The money lashed out on players by desperate clubs is ludicrous. And in light of what some players earn – and we didn’t even get to the absurd clauses marked ‘loyalty bonus’ and ‘win bonus’ – Wilshere, who commanded no transfer fee and always played with passion and personality, might look like a bargain. But he wasn’t good enough for an ambitious Arsenal team. So why should he start for West Ham who invested £100m over the summer in nine other players? And don’t West Ham have keen-as-mustard youth players who can be brought into the first team?
“Manuel and I identified him as a target as soon as we joined the club and we are delighted to have succeeded in securing Jack’s signature above a number of other teams,” said West Ham’s new director of football, Mario Husillos, a former sporting director at Malaga, when Wilshere arrived at West Ham in July. “On the biggest stage, he has shown that he has game-changing abilities, as well as having the creativity and intelligence to make a real difference to our squad.” A few seasons ago, yes. But recently? No.
Get well soon, Jack. But he’s unlikely to get better.
Posted: 18th, September 2018 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
