Have you even read what he said? âTime is running out for us to say weâre young anymore,â Wilshere said. âItâs easy for me to stand here and say, 'weâre young, we can go forwardâ but, if you look at Germany, theyâve got young players who are delivering now. Iâm 22, Ross [Barkley], Luke [Shaw] and Raheem [Sterling] are young players. They showed in this tournament what they can do but, in the next tournament we really have to deliver. Iâm not young anymore. Iâm going to be 23 in January and thatâs a good age for a footballer." âItâs all a bit raw. Iâm devastated. When we get back to England then weâll wake up every day and think: âwhat if this, what if thatâ. It is a nice group of young players and hopefully we can stick together, learn from this tournament, take all this disappointment and bottle it up.â He persistently mentions himself in relation to needing to deliver, and specifically doesn't include himself in the statement about who performed at the WC. Quite fair comments. He is currently overrated and needs to start performing consistently.
Wilshere had that short period when he looked to be one of these top young players but hes just another in the line of youngsters that fall away very quickly after showing great promise. Gazza, Owen, linekar, just to name a few, they burst on the scene and go from strength to strength and don't fade away until they prove their talent on all stages. Wilshere you can see has a good football brain, he can pick a pass and play quick one-twos but he can't burst away from players and already (from injuries) he is destined to be nothing more then someone who will occasionally show talent but spend his entire career being viewed a mouthy over rated gooner who could have been a top player.
This isn't a dig because he's a gooner but I really don't rate the guy that highly anyway, he's a good footballer don't get me wrong but I certainly wouldn't like the idea of relying on him in the future in an England shirt, not that our so-called superstars/ golden generation done the business for us over the years anyway but Wilshere is way too overhyped by the press. Pep Guardiola made a valid point when he was at Barca, that he has players as good/ better than Wilshere at La Masia. It's a terrible sign though for England as a whole because we're clearly not producing talent good enough to do our country proud but the fact the media jump on any youngster's bandwagon is a joke and it gets fan's hopes up only to be devastated once we realise we're actually very average. Townsend is another example, a good player and someone who's done a decent enough job with Spurs but the media have spoken about him as a future England star and while he may be an England squad member for years to come, I wouldn't like the idea of relying on him when you consider the wide players other nations have. The only genuine English talents - in my opinion - are Shaw, Barkley and Sterling. These guys are players I can genuinely say I'm excited to watch out for in the future. Will Hughes is another that's impressed me but he needs to prove himself in the Prem before making a true judgement.
There was a period just after he came back from the season long injury where he was our best player about 10 games in a row, then he got a second injury and we havn't seen that form again since
Not sure if true but I read a while back that Wilshere has already had the same amount of time out injured than Ledley King did with us.
Does that amount of time out injured include the 12 months he was "injured" at exactly the same time an unamed English Premier League player was given a secret 12 month ban for failing a drugs test? Allegedly. Was it his septum that was "injured"? Allegedly.
I'd agree with your assessment. I also think that Sturridge has the potential to turn into a pretty useful striker. Flanagan the mouser full back looks like he has potential too.
I don't even see Sturridge as a youngster really, which is weird as he's only 2 months older than me and I still consider myself as a young lad . Good player though. I agree about Flannagan, looks a like a decent player in the making, only thing is I reckon Walker and Shaw will keep the fullback slots for years to come providing their form doesn't dip horribly.
I think it's safe to say that Ghana have blown any chance of going through: first they threaten not to play unless they were paid up front, so the government had to send £1.8m via chartered jet, and now they've sent Muntari and KPB home - KPB for verbally abusing their coach in training, and Muntari for beating up a member of the Ghanaian FA committee.
"I think it's safe to say that Ghana have blown any chance of going through" Didn't that occur the moment Boss "adopted" them as his team ??
Oh Ghana! FFS!.....But I'm not going to give up (yet) as the manner in which they played against Germany, the passion, last ditch tackles and the disappointment in the coaches eyes, tells me they aren't out of this. Granted its not been the best of weeks, bribery accusations, in house fighting, players throwing tantrums and players demanding to be paid. Not Ideal but lets not underestimate how great Ghana have been at the last world cup and they should have beaten Germany 3-1 this year and outplayed USA (losing to two fluky goals) .........I've nearly convinced myself!
They made it difficult by not employing a European Coach. African teams always have these "issues" its just part and parcel of African football, but the players are able to separate it from effecting their game. The biggest negative for Ghana was not having a European Coach as last World Cup they had that European manager who can compensate for some of the players natural naivety, although they are lucky to be still be win with a chance, as when they where 1 nil down to Germany everyone assumed they had no chance so all credit to Ghana for giving themselves an outside shot.
It seems to be a fairly common problem with African sides - discipline, as it's called in Rugby. They have some wonderful players, but team discipline is something else. I know some South American sides, who can be guessed at!! have the same problem but they have improved greatly, on the whole.
It has been the way that every World Cup sees one West African team derailed either by infighting and egos (Cameroon in 1998, Nigeria in 2002) or squabbling about bonuses (Togo in 2006, Cameroon and Ghana in 2014) I wouldn't be surprised if the habit of parachuting in some journeyman European coach once the team had qualified had something to do with it myself, as the players can adopt the attitude of "We qualified without you, who are you to tell us how to play?"
I'm not sure how much of it is down to the players and how much is down to their respective Football Associations. The security is often dubious, money goes missing, team selections are sketchy and then there's the match-fixing rumours in some cases, too.
