London: There are lies, damned lies and statistics. And sometimes there are just damning statistics. As Jack Wilshere again sat on the bench during Arsenal’s 3-1 victory over Watford on Saturday, a position he has become familiar with so far this season, the reality is that the career of the 24-year-old is heading in an unwanted direction.
He can, surely, see some kind of crossroads ahead and one that is coming up fast.
Those statistics, according to Opta, are revealing: in 2010-11 Wilshere made 35 appearances; in 2011-12 no appearances; in 2012-13 he made 25 appearances; in 2013-14 he made 24 appearances; in 2014-15 he made 14 appearances; in 2015-16 he made just three appearances.
From 2,650 minutes on the pitch five seasons ago, as he broke through as one of the most exciting English talents for years, Wilshere has registered just 4,325 minutes, in total, since then and the trajectory of that graph has headed ever downwards.
The midfielder has completed a full 90 minutes in the Premier League just once since the start of 2014-15 and has, worryingly, been taken off in nine of the last 10 matches he did start.
The stats are brutal and show decline, not recovery. Wilshere was taken to Euro 2016 because it was, despite the obvious medical and fitness evidence to the contrary, deemed that he was a “special player” who was worth the risk.
His ineffective performances against Slovakia and Iceland proved the folly of that argument as the risk backfired, albeit in a collective disaster for England and manager Roy Hodgson, who paid for the campaign with his job.
And so, for now, Wilshere is out of the England squad who again prepare to face Slovakia, this time in a World Cup qualifier, with that omission far less of a surprise than the decision to leave out an in-form Ross Barkley.
In truth, despite being fit, Wilshere did not expect to be selected by new manager Sam Allardyce and certainly not ahead of Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater, who he squeezed out of Hodgson’s squad.
Unsurprisingly, Allardyce has gone for a far more robust, physical and reliable combination because he cannot afford to wait.
The reasoning is clear: Wilshere’s 37 minutes on the pitch for Arsenal so far this season — amounting to two substitute appearances — simply do not warrant inclusion. But what is even more worrying for Wilshere is where his Arsenal career is heading. As he sat among the other substitutes he may well have reflected on just where he fits into Arsene Wenger’s plans as the manager has adorned his team with yet more technically-gifted, talented midfielders.
Wenger, also, it seems, is no longer waiting. Instead a central pairing of Santi Cazorla alongside the new 30 million pounds (Dh144.33 million) signing Granit Xhaka suddenly looks like a formidable first choice for Arsenal and despite, like Xhaka, being left-footed, it would appear that it is not Wilshere but Francis Coquelin who is the natural understudy to the Switzerland international.
Then there is Egyptian Mohammad Al Neny, and Aaron Ramsey, currently out through injury, who both would feel, and with justification, that they deserve to be ahead of Wilshere in Wenger’s thoughts because of their performances.
No one can blame Wenger. Maybe his squad is still top heavy with midfielders but he simply cannot keep holding on for Wilshere who, now, every time he returns from injury finds that it is ever harder to re-establish himself in the Arsenal team. Even if he tries to claim a place further forward there is a formidable queue ahead of him.
This is certainly not to give Wilshere a kicking. He has had plenty of that in the past — hence his horrible injury record, although he has also admitted to an over-eager recklessness in his play that has contributed to that and the loss of almost two whole seasons through not being fit.
As an aside, one member of England’s coaching staff confided before Euro 2016 that he would love more time to work with Wilshere on the training pitches to try to “re-programme” the way he plays and, in particular, the needless challenges he makes that put his fragile body at risk. Even so, at the end of the last campaign it emerged that Arsenal were planning to offer Wilshere, who has just under two years remaining on his deal with the club, a contract extension.
As a product of the Arsenal academy, he is one of the players with whom fans most closely identify and is also hugely popular at the club with his bubbly personality.
Wilshere is also, of course, English and helps fulfil the home-grown quota so, despite his declining importance for Arsenal, it is natural for the club to want to keep him. But the question Wilshere has to ask himself is not just whether he can stay fit but where he now fits in and whether, through the ravages of injury, Arsenal have moved on too far away from him.
Inevitably that will lead to suggestions that Wilshere himself should consider his future and whether it lies with another club. It may well come to that and it would be fascinating to see what would happen if a significant offer were made for him.
