Former Arsenal player Paul Merson has questioned why Arsene Wenger has sent Jack Wilshere out on loan and disagreed with the Frenchman’s decision.
The England international has struggled with injuries over recent seasons and has fallen down the preferences at the Emirates Stadium after the arrivals of central midfielders Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny this year.
Wilshere penned a season-long loan deal with Bournemouth on transfer deadline day that will give him the chance to play consistently in the Premier League this season if he can stay fit.
Merson has stated that the homegrown star is still good enough to feature for the Gunners and the fact that other Arsenal players were not loaned out could be a bad sign for Wilshere’s future in North London.
“I was very surprised to see someone of Wilshere’s calibre to go on a season-long loan, you could understand if it was one or two months,” he told Sky Sports.
”I was surprised Arsenal would let him go for that long.
“He’s different to what Arsenal currently have, he makes things happen, he can thread the ball through the eye of a needle.
“This is not a case of Wilshere needing to play football, there are a lot of other players at Arsenal who need to play football.
“Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hasn’t kicked a ball, Theo Walcott has barely kicked a ball and they haven’t been on loan anywhere.
“You’d have to ask whether Wenger fancies Wilshere, that would be my question to him.
“Does he fancy him as a player and does he trust him as a player? Because there are other players at Arsenal who haven’t performed and they haven’t been out on loan.”
Arsenal have Xhaka, Elneny, Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey who are all capable of playing in central midfield and as such Wilshere was facing a campaign on the sidelines if he stayed at the Emirates Stadium.
[ad_pod id=’arsenal-players’ align=’center’]
