Former Arsenal player John Hartson said that Unai Emery will regret his decision of letting Jack Wilshere go. The 26-year old midfielder went to West Ham this summer so that he could get more playing time.
Hartson said, “When Emery came in, I listened to him, I don’t think Jack was shown the love. When Emery came in, he didn’t make it one of his priorities to keep Jack Wilshere. He said he wanted to keep [Aaron] Ramsey, add other players but Jack was the type who got so much support from [Arsene] Wenger over the years, if Emery had gone in and backed him to be his main man, he would have stayed.
I thought Jack had as good of a season he’s had in a long time last year, he proved his fitness, I know he didn’t go to the World Cup but I think he’ll be a good signing for West Ham. He’s a good age, he seems to have got over his injury problems. His weight of pass is incredible, that’s underrated. He can ghost past people and play the perfect pass.”
The former Arsenal player added, “His appreciation of players around him is exceptional, he isn’t appreciated enough in my opinion. I know has hasn’t played a lot of football but last season he proved he could do it. Was it a mistake to let him go? Emery doesn’t seem to think so. But to let him go on a free, that may be Arsenal’s problem to let his contract run down. We’ll know this season if he starts tearing it up for West Ham, then Arsenal will be thinking it’s a mistake.”
West Ham had a poor start to their Premier League campaign as they lost 4-0 to Liverpool. However, Hartson believes that under Pellegrini, the club can improve significantly. The former Arsenal player said, “That’s one of the reasons they moved for Pellegrini, a Premier League winner. He can entice players to come and play for West Ham. They’ve been behind the other London clubs for several years now. West Ham feel they’ve got a stadium to compete with anybody, the board have decided they need to spend to please the disgruntled fans.
Hopefully now West Ham can kick on with the calibre of player they have now, although it’s hard to integrate them straight into the team. I think the fans will be expecting big things from them. I had a conversation early on about who is under the most pressure, Emery or Pellegrini – and I think it’s a very difficult one. Arsenal fans will be expecting Emery to hit the ground running but the West Ham fans want to push into the top six and European spots. They’ve spent a fortune on players with big wages. It’s intriguing.”
The Gunners play their next Premier League fixture against Chelsea today while West Ham play Bournemouth.
