Why Jack Wilshere should be praised for taking the brave decision to move from Arsenal to Bournemouth

After losing almost all of last season to injury, Wilshere needs a relaunch, and time to work on his game, which is why a move to the south coast is the right one for him

Wilshere is looking to rebuild his career at the Vitality Stadium (Getty)

The last time Jack Wilshere went on loan, in January 2010, he had just turned 18 years old and was playing for enthusiastic young manager Owen Coyle at Bolton Wanderers. He flourished at the Reebok Stadium, alongside Fabrice Muamba, Kevin Davies and Lee Chung-Yong. At the end of the season Coyle hailed him as “absolutely quality” and cursed the fact Arsene Wenger would not let Bolton have him for another six months.

Bournemouth spent that season in League Two, winning promotion back to the third tier under inspirational 32-year-old manager Eddie Howe.

Now, six and a half years on, Wilshere is on loan again, at Howe’s Bournemouth, not in the lower leagues but in the top flight. It might sound like Wilshere is slumming it but the reality of the situation is that he needs Bournemouth and he needs this loan to work. Because the sad fact of Wilshere’s career is that he was a better player as a teenager, at Bolton and then in his breakthrough Arsenal season, than he is now.

To see Wilshere struggling to influence the game at the European Championship this year was to see a player who looks unsure of what he should be doing on the pitch any more. When Wilshere first emerged through his game was all about that firework burst that drove him into space. He could run with the ball glued to his feet, through gaps and through opponents when necessary.

But years of injuries have slowed Wilshere down and blunted his touch. Now when he tries to burst past opponents he overruns the ball, losing it, lunging it after, risking hurting himself or someone else.

Before this season started Wilshere admitted that he cannot play such a boyishly enthusiastic game any more. “I know my body better than ever now, I know what it can and cannot do,” he said in one Wednesday morning in early August. “It just can’t go into ridiculous challenges, especially in training.”

This is why Wilshere needed to go on loan this week, and why he needs to play as much as possible. Because he needs to rediscover what sort of player he wants to be. It is not a simple case of getting back up to speed again after a long lay-off. It is about re-evaluating his game, weighing his powerful natural gifts against the limitations imposed on him by the bad luck he has had.

That is why Wilshere could not stay at Arsenal, hoping for a few minutes off the bench here, a League Cup start there with maybe the vague promise of a run of comfortable games when the team gets going. He needs more playing time than that, more trust, more space to find his role again on the pitch. There would have been more glamour in a move to Roma but what if he arrived there, struggled to settle and did not play? Sitting on the bench in Rome would have done him no more benefit than staying at Arsenal.

Wilshere said before the season started that his target for the season was to “play as many games as possible”. Clearly that would not be possible at Arsenal. Granit Xhaka and Santi Cazorla is the first-choice pair. Aaron Ramsey is the man who needs to be squeezed in, somehow, while Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin are the able deputies. Wilshere barely figures in the picture.

It is too easy to condemn Wilshere for not staying to fight for his place at Arsenal, or not going to a bigger club where he could compete for trophies or learn a new style of play. His mission is more simple and more important than that. After the worst year of his career, he needs to learn the game again, out on the pitch. Just like he did at the Reebok when his whole career was still ahead of him.