Haha. This is the best day for transfer stories yet.
Jack Wilshere to Celtic.
Even on a season long loan it sounds like the kind of thing you’d try in Football Manager and then get frustrated because it never quite came off. It’s from that kind of sphere, the truly incredible, the stuff that belongs in the final transfer window hours, when the last of the good whiskey is done and people have moved on to White Lightning.
I can’t see it.
Because it sounds absurd.
And yet … maybe.
Because Arsenal probably don’t like the idea of this kid going to another club in England, and they definitely don’t want to see him sold. He’d get in the Celtic team – that’s pretty much assured, when he’s on form he’d get in any team – and we do have a couple of reasonably big games coming up … so there’s some logic in this suggestion.
But it’s a long shot. The longest shot of them all, and I simply don’t see anything coming of it. Although I know we were talking to clubs in England about season long loans, I didn’t hear Arsenal’s name come up. They sent a few players to Sevco on loan, of course, but none of them would have been good enough to get into our team, and their better young players … well no-one in English football trusts his youth more than Arsene Wegner.
The fans don’t always like it, and it’s not proved hugely successful, but he does want to see the better members of the youth academy in the first team. Of all of them, Wilshire was once the most prominent and promising, but his career has badly stalled because of injury and he looks a shadow of the footballer he once promised to be.
And that’s where the trouble is, because Celtic Park under Brendan Rodgers really isn’t the place for a player trying to claw back his credibility and his career, even one as talented as this guy. Wiltshire is still capable of phenomenal things when fit, and on form, but there are doubts about whether he’s capable of producing on a regular basis, and we can’t carry passengers right now, even those who come with a big name and a rep for sexy football.
There’s a reason we didn’t pursue Schweinsteiger; for all the craft he possesses his injury record is longer than his recent list of accolades.
If the McCarthy move has been scrapped (Paul67 on CQN has denied the interest ever existed in the first place, based on a conversation with someone inside the club) then his much heralded groin injury and the need, perhaps, for an operation could be a good reason for it.
(One last time I’ll stick my neck out on this; I think he’ll sign.)
But it’s not enough for a player to have the right skill-set if we can’t utilise it.
Let me put it this way; if Patrick Roberts broke his leg tomorrow then unless we closed a permanent deal that’s the last we’d see him in the Hoops.
Whoever we bring in has to be ready, fit, match sharp, capable of going straight into the team and fighting for the place every week. He has to make other players work harder, do more, push themselves to the edge. You can’t do that if you’re out injured, if you’re off form, if you’ve been brought in as a glamorous name and little else.
Brendan’s attacking template seems to be built on speed; our new right back is a pacy player who will get up and down the park like lightning, and we should all be thrilled by that. He wants players with a yard on their opponents, and guys like Dembele who have the stomach for a fight if that’s what’s required. We’re clearly looking for a midfield player – Lucas Leiva is the latest name, but that seems just as far-fetched as this one – and certain boxes need to be ticked.
Some say it’s a creative type we’re looking for, but Tom Rogic can fill that role.
What we really need is a ball-winning hard man and they are out there, but they are not cheap.
Jack Wilshire. In the Hoops. It’s a pleasing image, and a very nice idea.
If those doubts about his fitness weren’t there and I thought there was the remotest chance of this one coming off I would be salivating, believe me. But those doubts do exist, and he will have options aside from us and probably the chance to play in Europe with it.
If I had to put this in a category, I’d say it belongs in the “with regret, not a chance” one.
Because, of course, I’d take a fit Jack Wilshire in a second and so would Brendan Rodgers, and if this one is true and it does come off I’ll still be ecstatic and excited every time we see him in a Celtic jersey. Aside from that I wish the kid well in his career; five years ago he was one of those “once in a generation” talents, who everyone was raving about. You hope he can get an ounce of that back, because you’d still be talking about one Hell of a player.
Even as I write this, press reports in Italy have us linked with the versatile Brazilian midfielder Hernanes, from Juventus. He can play that anchoring role, but he also likes to get forward, where he’s a creative player who can pass a ball the length of the park.
He’s 31 and has bags of experience.
Whether that’s got any truth to it remains to be seen, but it’s another name to join the list, another name to tantalise us.
The window closes tomorrow night.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ll be pretty pleased when it does.