When a new young sports star emerges, with the potential for supreme universally-admired talent, there is often a clamour to liken them to an established legend. It helps people to make sense of the talent and to define expectations. This particularly tends to happen when there is a void to fill. Nobody can just be themselves, they have to be the new somebody else. Freddie Flintoff could not just be the current Freddie Flintoff, he had to be the ‘new Ian Botham’. At Arsenal, Abou Diaby could not merely develop in his own shadow, he had to be the ‘new Patrick Vieira’. Poor old Phillipe Senderos was expected to be the ‘new Tony Adams’. It doesn’t always help. Jack Wilshere has emerged in the last year or so to great expectations and, after a loan spell at Bolton last season, he has started to become a fledgling regular in the Arsenal first team. Hallelujah! Long gone hopefully are the days when a promising young Arsenal runtlet would disappear from view and end up being sold to

Simon Rose sings the praises of Jack Wilshere Bradinho

Wilshere has the classic low centre of gravity, like Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi

Rotherham for fifty grand. Due to persistent firstteam action and even full England honours, Wilshere looks to be a strong talent and one that is here to stay. Wilshere is left footed, astute, elusive and tremendously skilful. He is prepared to make tackles, creates perceptive chances and scores impressive goals. He is combative and tough to shirk off the ball. He pulls the team back into matches where we are struggling and can make strong contributions at either end of the pitch. He must be the ‘new Liam Brady’ then. I am a bit too young to remember Brady too much, only really catching the tail-end of his Arsenal career, but what I saw impressed me and I knew from my Dad and my uncles that Brady was something special. When Brady played I knew it was important, when he got injured I knew it was drastic. A little bit like the effect that a Cesc Fabregas absence has on Arsenal now. Wilshere has the classic low centre of gravity, like Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi,

which is often earmarked as a sign of high quality. If you have great personal balance, allied with close control, vision and a deceptive turn of pace, the opposition struggles to stop you weaving your magic. Brazilians have an admirable way to nickname emerging stars: the player’s name is lengthened with the suffix of ‘-inho’, for ‘little’, as in Robinho and Ronaldinho. If Jack Wilshere is the ‘new Liam Brady’, or at least is our hope for a similar ilk of player, then he is our ‘little Brady’. Jack Wilshere is Arsenal’s ‘Bradinho’. Arsene Wenger has talked of not wanting to land too much pressure on Wilshere too early and to let him develop at a natural pace. Yet Wilshere has enjoyed a significant run of appearances this season, enough to suggest that either the club feels that Jack is ready, or, frankly, that we need him. If Arsenal get it right with Wilshere’s development, affording him the environment in which to become his own man, then we could reap sweet rewards in the seasons to come. English players rarely tend to move to foreign clubs or move between the top domestic clubs. In

Italy, transfers are practically incestuous between the main sides, but in England once you rise from a smaller club to a big club it is rare to move directly to another big club. If you started at a big English club you tend to stay put if you are something special. Jack certainly fits that bill. As Wilshere has developed well so far, coming through Arsenal’s

4 ranks and aided by our elite youth personnel, there is a superb and frankly simple way to continue that upwards trend. In the same breath, we can also tackle the first team’s appalling lack of defensive organisation, plus end the staleness of Wenger’s backroom staff. Sounds good, right? Like some kind of three-in-one miracle cure? It sure is. Many fans have suggested that Pat Rice – admirable service applauded - should be replaced by someone younger with fresh ideas, a leader who can organise the defence and who won’t be a ‘yes man’ to Wenger. Cult defensive legend Martin Keown has been heavily backed, as he helped the Arsenal cause in 2006 but hasn’t been used since. Tony Adams is an Arsenal hero for many and his legendary defensive acumen would be invaluable. But there is a far simpler answer and it’s already at the club: promote Steve Bould to be Wenger’s number two. A legendary Gunner, cut from the same cloth and lineup as Keown and Adams, who knows the club and its ethos, Bouldie would be immense and could lead from experience. His defensive nous would add invaluable coaching expertise, especially if he had a remit to end Arsenal’s defensive naivety and create proper defensive organisation. We are way too charitable in our play. ‘Be a Gooner be a Giver’ is a great and admirable charity but it shouldn’t extend to the pitch. Add the fact that Bould has helped to bring through several youngsters including Wilshere and Bould is clearly ideally placed to help transition our nippers through to become first-team regulars. Wilshere has what is termed, quite oddly, to be a ‘football brain’. What sort of brain do other footballers have? I’m not sure, although some do seem to be a bit brainless. Chris Waddle criticised Jack’s teammate Theo Walcott for lacking a football brain. As you know, I have always been a one-man Walcott-supporting bandwagon, but I think I may have missed something in Waddle’s flawless judgement. Prior to Waddle landing media punditry gigs I had previously thought that Waddle was a limited public speaker, with illthought, incomplete, flawed arguments that could be pulled apart in a moment, who could only gain airtime because the media thinks that former players ‘know their football’ and that regional accents appeal to the masses. Clearly, in becoming a radio pundit, Waddle is actually automatically astute and lucid, capable of well-considered arguments, journalistic acumen and complete sentences. It’s just that when the experienced pro Waddle criticised the unfinished article Walcott for having no ‘football brain’, it made me wonder something. Which part of his football brain did Chris Waddle use when he skied his crucial World Cup semi final penalty over the crossbar? Jack Wilshere does not have to be the new Liam Brady, just the current Jack Wilshere. We shouldn’t expect him to be Brady, just because his play is a bit similar. We need to give him the space to become his own person and simply be himself. As a latter-day beacon of hope, Jack’s style is similar to Brady and he carries the Brady effect as he offers us a new belief, a fresh hope for a long-term home-raised multi-talented talisman, capable of orchestrating Arsenal success in the years to come. He is Jack Wilshere, not Liam Brady, but he is our ‘little Brady’, our Bradinho. 5