I’ve been biting my tongue very hard since joining BR about a particular issue. For two reasons—firstly, I didn’t want to come across as too blinkered in my support for Arsenal (that ship may have already sailed unfortunately).

And secondly, I wanted to be sure. I didn’t want to jump the gun. Plenty of predictors end up with egg on their face, so I thought it best to tread carefully. But I have been shouting this kid's name (off the record) to anyone who would listen since the tail end of last season.

Forget all that, he’s just been given a jersey for the season so I’m gonna shoot my mouth off. Not a number in the high 20’s and 30’s that you see on the backs of other Academy graduates, but Gilberto’s No.19 no less. He is a part of the team now, and you’d better believe he’s good enough. And that's on the record.

Jack Wilshere is the name on every Arsenal fan’s lips at the moment, and it’s easy to see why. His reserve team debut against West Ham was the first I saw of him, and he was hands-down our best player in that game. He was confident, elegant on the ball, has a great eye for a pass, and his top-corner finish was one of the reserve team’s goals of the season.

Wenger said at the time that he may be ready for the step-up into the first team this season, so as expected he took Jack along with a few other reserves on his preseason tour of Austria.

What we didn’t expect was a run of four games, three goals, at least three assists that I can remember. He had a fantastic cameo against Real Madrid no less, and a starting berth against Juve. Make no mistake, his start against Juve was on merit.

An attacking midfielder, Jack is predominantly left-footed, but he looked equally comfortable on either flank during the pre-season tour. He’s Wenger’s dream for the future of Arsenal; an Englishman that plays like a continental.

Because he has been educated by Arsenal, he has two very good feet, great technique, vision and body balance, and a precocious understanding of the game.

But it’s his mentality that has won him Gilberto’s shirt. He played against average, poor, AND top-level opposition this summer. He literally does not care who’s in front of him, and to my memory the last sixteen old with that mentality in the Arsenal squad was a certain Cesc Fabregas.

That’s not to say he’s as good as Cesc was at that age, but he's not far off at all. He certainly looked more comfortable on the ball this summer than some of our squad. He actually outperformed Nasri in my opinion in a couple of the games this pre-season, and although that has more to do with his education within the Arsenal system than him actually being a better player than Nasri (which is not the case, obviously), this also means that half the battle is already won when it comes to his development. 

He understands his role, at 16 years of age!

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