Footballers are often criticised for the example they set on and off the field; in regards to foul play, showing discontent and disrespect to the referee or in Jack Wilshere’s case smoking in his time off the pitch.
October 4 2013. On this date numerous reports spread from various media outlets berating Wilshere for smoking outside of a nightclub. At this point Jack had usually conducted himself relatively well, was amongst the fans favourites (as he still is) and had the footballing world at his feet. However, the English media seem to be experts in hypocrisy when it comes to English players and how they choose to portray them in the media. If your sole intention is to tarnish a players reputation, and let’s be honest to some extent it was, to then criticise the same player for not performing is ludicrous. This is true of many English players, not just Wilshere. The media seems to forget these players, despite their extensive salaries, are human beings and not robots, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility to suggest such media attention can have a detrimental effect on their usual playing standards.
October 6 2013 (2 days after the media onslaught). In a tight game against West Brom Wilshere managed to provide a goal to earn Arsenal a vital point against West Brom. A Jack Wilshere goal is a rarity, and it only went to humiliate further those who were haranguing him in the press, showing that his smoking certainty wasn’t effecting his performance as some suggested it might. At this time the Arsenal midfielder was just 21 and managed to rise above the media. In this day and age it seems a quality necessary for players to have, albeit an unfortunate one that is required with constant enforcement of news that follows Premier League stars around.
Fast forward to now: England are out of the World Cup after their worst performance since 1950; the newspapers are becoming bored of scapegoating Wayne Rooney. Jack Wilshere is caught smoking on holiday again? Perfect! If you throw Jose Mourinho into the mix then all of a sudden you have a story, at least in the eyes of most mainstream newspapers. On a side note you could question how Mourinho can suggest Wilshere is setting a bad example, after all he has been guilty of a considerable number of FA charges, eye gauging and generally being a nuisance, but that’s perhaps another story.
The broader issue is the selectiveness of what is reported and what therefore will be read by the public. After the World Cup the majority of attentive football fans will have heard about Özil donating his wages to charity; an honourable and deservedly well thought of act. How many will have heard about England players doing similar acts prior to the World Cup? Or the now over £3m the National Team has raised for the England Players Foundation over the years. Very few. We’d rather focus on the irrelevant topic of Wilshere smoking and somehow find a correlation with that and England’s poor performance or his stagnating progress as a player. If such journalists really cared about the footballers they so often mention, why not actually try to balance out the positive and negative reports at least a little bit? Then maybe, just maybe a positive portrayal in the media will lead to a positive effect on the players rather than the ridiculous amounts of pressure and unwanted attention they currently have to endure.
The English man of the undesirable moment, Jack Wilshere, is at a vital point in his career. A player, who has now found himself on the fringes of the England team as opposed to being part of the spine of it. A player who some may argue is yet to live up to the huge expectancy surrounding him in consistency of performances. And a player not so long ago many would have thought he’d have been amongst the names being thrown about for replacing recently retired England captain, Steven Gerrard. The likelihood is he will have a great future ahead of him for club and country, admittedly smoking may not be the answer to his problems on the field but it’s unlikely they will effect how he performs either. It’s now up to Wilshere to rise above the criticism being thrown his way. The old-fashioned advice of ‘do your talking on the field’ remains true for Jack, and with someone with as much quality and still at 22, potential as he has, I’m sure he will.
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