Arsène Wenger has roamed the earth for footballers who can pass like Xavi or Andrés Iniesta. For a long time he may have thought English youngsters were good only for giving the ball away or getting into scrapes in nightclubs. Imagine his surprise, then, when he found what he was looking for in Hitchin, a Hertfordshire town from where Valerie Singleton went on to present Blue Peter – a show Jack Wilshere has not long grown out of.
In French academies and African villages Wenger has pursued players capable of executing his vision of what football should be: a game of pace, skill, fluidity, adventure. But all he had to do was motor north from the club's training ground at London Colney to a heartland of suburban Arsenal support. There he found the most gifted young English midfielder since Paul Scholes, who made his debut for Manchester United at the age Wilshere is now.
The difference is that Scholes padded on to the scene in a League Cup match at Port Vale while Wilshere, at 19, already appears indistinguishable from Barcelona's two best midfielders, who took silver and bronze behind Lionel Messi in Fifa's world footballer of the year award. In Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Pep Guardiola's team Wilshere could have worn the livery of either side, such was his range of passing, his courage in demanding the ball in tight spots, his confidence and sense of belonging.
The two compatriots who bear comparison from the last 25 years are Scholes and Paul Gascoigne, who crashed the picture with Newcastle shortly before his 18th birthday, against QPR, in April 1985. Scholes was a small bundle of dexterity and toughness who still lacked the physical dimensions to convince United's coaching staff he would fully make the grade. Gascoigne was more of a maverick: brilliant but troubled, blessed but wayward.
This is where Wilshere's story veers off into its own sparkly realm. A Premier League debutant at 16 years and 256 days, the Stevenage-born but Hitchin-raised Wilshere won his first England cap at 18 years and 222 days and has already played 48 times for Arsenal.
Gascoigne was granted the freedom to self-destruct. Scholes had to fight his way through a thicket of selectorial challenges. At various times in his early years Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Juan Sebastián Verón all stood in his way. Scholes is a majestic player who has had to accommodate or work around rival talent more than we appreciate. In the end his class and loyalty paid dividends. At first he was seldom in command of his own destiny, as Wilshere is now.
In the aftermath of Arsenal's thrilling counter-drive one witness pointed out that Barcelona may forget Cesc Fábregas next summer and come calling for Wilshere instead. Normally, hype fixes itself on a young striker who announces himself with a rash of goals, or a zesty teenage winger who smears full-backs on toast. This time, though, praise is being stacked up for a young English conductor in the hardest position of all: a fresh face with the full repertoire of short and long link-play, balls round the corner and probing passes delivered on the run, like Steven Gerrard at his best.
In all dimensions Wilshere exceeded the bounds of what ought to be possible for a player of his years against the world's best club side. Gascoigne's finest moments were in an England shirt. In his brief prime he locked antlers with many formidable opponents. There is no memory, though, of him having to struggle against a Messi, Busquets, Iniesta and Xavi in spaces so heavily compressed that the rest of us would have no time to shout "help!" between receiving and losing the ball.
Scholes mastered this art steadily, in the company of serial trophy-winning colleagues. Wilshere seems to have arrived there by some developmental miracle. No time seemed to elapse between reports of his promise and the delivery of those hopes against Barcelona, in a Champions League knockout tie, amid suffocating pressure.
There is good news on the England front too. In an interview before the game Wilshere surrendered an insight into how highly his international team-mates rate him. Fabio Capello is in danger of using him as a luxury David Batty but Wilshere says: "I spoke to Frank Lampard before the [Denmark] game and he said – 'don't just sit, we've seen you can go forward, so if you want to go forward just tell me and I'll sit' – which is similar to my role with Arsenal really, when I have that licence too."
Lampard, who has travelled up many dead ends with England, is evidently helping with the future, which has arrived early, in the shape of a young orchestrator who defies the English norm. The system can be beaten.
Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 17 Feb 11
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