A Fabregas move may inadvertently work in England’s favour
There is always plenty of media speculation doing the rounds on where Cesc Fabregas will be playing his football next season. With the sheer volume of rumours it’s beginning to look like it’s unlikely the Spaniard will be at Arsenal next season. However, before Arsenal fans start worrying about how to replace the midfield star, pause for a moment and consider the silver lining. For the last few seasons we have looked at the Arsenal squad and wondered where the British players are – but could all that be about to change. With Fabregas gone surely Jack Wilshere would move into centre stage and could well be supported by the likes of Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey and possibly even Henri Lansbury. The player who has been on loan at Norwich, this week said he is targeting the Arsenal first-team and with Fabregas gone his chance might just come.
But let’s come back to Wilshere and consider him as the star of the midfield. However, at the age of 19 you surely wouldn’t dream of handing the captaincy over to him, would you? But even so Wilshere can grow as a leader of that midfield in either his organizational skills or by the example he sets by his play. Recently Wilshere has been playing as a holding midfielder for Arsenal – but he is one of those rare talents that can adapt to any role in the midfield. Therefore, Arsenal can build their team around him without having to worry too much about the position he will play.
However, with news that Wilshere has been selected for the England U21’s the dangers of burn out are there for all to see and could there be such a thing as pushing too much too hard. Well with most youngsters there might be something in that – but Wilshere is a very special talent and I think extra responsibility on his shoulders is the sort of conditions that will allow Wilshere to blossom into both a top level Premier League and England player.
In many ways it’s tempting to throw him straight into the England side now and I can certainly see Wenger’s issues with having him play for both the England U21’s and England national sides. However, Wilshere is still young and needs to get playing a good amount of games to allow him to develop his skills in the best way possible. There is always the mental attitude to consider; surely it can only benefit Wilshere to play in big games in big stadiums now. That level of experience will stand him in good stead in the future – when playing in big games for Arsenal and England; if he has been there before he won’t need to worry about nerves so much so can just focus on his performance. How often do we hear of an England manager’s reluctance to play a youngster in the World Cup because of his lack of experience? Furthermore you can understand why Stuart Pearce is interested in picking the best players he can and who can blame him.
So with everything being said the future looks very bright for Jack Wilshere, if he continues to develop the way he has done he will be a terrific player. And don’t underestimate the power of having the Arsenal team built around him. Fabregas will be a big loss but with Wilshere coming into his prime maybe it’s just natural progression.
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Aaron Ramsey is Welsh…and Lansbury isn’t good enough for Arsenal’s 1st team, let alone england.
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James Kent Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 5:36 pm
The England connection refers to Wilshere. I am well aware that Ramsay is Welsh and I am not suggesting Lansbury will play for England.
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Jimmy Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I was linking the title to the 1st paragraph, that’s all.
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James Kent Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Sorry for the confusion.
Not Much Wilshere can learn from a couple of U21′s that he hasn’t learnt playing with and against the likes of Fabregas, Nasri, van Persie, Rooney, Xavi, Iniesta etc and playing in stadia like Camp Nou, Stamford Bridge etc. I also find the notion that he needs to play more games after a 50+ game season laughable
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James Kent Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Well it is obviously something the player has decided he wants to do.
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potter Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Remember the furore over Bentley’s decision not to play ?. Of course he is young and wants to play : just the wrong decision. He needs to rest or he will end up like Owen with a permanent hamstring problem, as opposed to a Giggs still playing at 39 who was heavily protected by Fergie when he was young. This all about Pearce’s ego and Capello’s lack of interest in the future.
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James Kent Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Are you suggesting Wenger should have physically preventing him playing?
potter Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
He can’t under the new rules , but it’s too much too soon . After the U21′s it will be England then It will be Arsenal again followed by the Olympics followed by Arsenal and the Euros , by the time he reaches physical maturity , he will be a wreck. Already this year you can see his game has gone off a little towards the end of the season . He is running on empty.
James Kent Reply:
May 20th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
So is it too soon for him to be playing for England?
potter Reply:
May 21st, 2011 at 12:34 am
In many ways yes. His involvement should at present be a squad player getting 20 minute cameos. It is not his fault that the golden generation have proved unable to string a few passes together but to put the weight on his shoulders is not right and could easily end in tears.
Jack WON’T be in his prime for at least another 5 years. By selling Fab who has over 200 prem appearances behind him its gonna be the same old story of releasing an experienced player, reducing the age of the side,pinning all our hopes on a kid just like Fab was 5 years ago and winning sod all again.
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its gonna be a long summer of rubbish reporting.maybe selling van persie could be good for english player called walcott.selling clichy good for gibbs, vermaelen out in comes bartley.lets sell all the foreigners and replace them with english players.
btw, lansbury is just another english hype, not good enough and even if clichy is sold. pedro botelho will come in. i hope he improves coz traore is also coming back to fight for left back position.
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in contrary, cesc staying at arsenal for at least another year is beneficial to jack.
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1st of all anybody saying Fabregas move would benefit England clearly does not support Arenal,
2ndly if we get Benzema as am hoping we would, Wilshere would not even have a spot in the team,
3rdly all we need is Benzema and Vertonghen to replace clichy and also be a back up to CB
4thly if we are going to get a new CB it should be SAMBA not Cahill like the whole english media is saying
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The media and pundits alike only care about the English national team, as much as I don’t like Clichy, I would rather Vertonghen be his replacement, because Gibbs is not ready, but the pundits are always ridiculing Clichy and praise Gibbs for the littlest of things just because he’s English please football people like than need to stay out and keep their comments to themselves that is just plain selfish
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So your suggesting fabragas should move so that arsenal will have to play wilshere ramsey and eve henri lansbury in the first team? In a long term veiw i couldnt agree more, but atm if we play with that then we never gonna win title. Ces is with out the doubt best midfielder in epl for 3 or 4 years now. Where as ramsey and henri are great potential but have half the experience that fab has. Instead what i feel is wenger sell players like almunia, denilson, diaby, rosicky, loan vela. We need a defensive back up for song. And play henri and ramsey as sub. Upgrade jay emmanual thomas to first team. I believe we should play with 4-4-2 formation. Szgney-vermalean-johan-clichy-saygna-song-fabragas-nasri-walcott-vapersie-bendtner. Sub : scott parker, cahill, arshavin, jay emmanual thomas, henri , ramsey, koscielney, wilsere, chamakh, flappynaski.
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James Kent Reply:
May 21st, 2011 at 11:06 am
No I’m not suggesting Arsenal should sell Fabregas just that if they did it would open up opportunities to other players.
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you havin a laugh? Fabregas isn’t someone you can just drop out, the whole team is built around him. Wilshere is a great player but he’s absolutely no Fabregas. It took years for Arsenal to develop a player with such vision and technique.
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