Jack Wilshere Signs New Contract with Arsenal

First of all, today we have the great news that Jack Wilshere has signed a new, long-term contract with Arsenal. I'm sure he has bagged himself a hefty wage rise but from what we have seen this season, it is fully deserved. He has looked very impressive playing in a central midfield role and at only 18 years of age, his future certainly looks very bright.

The first time I saw him play was in the Emirates Cup in 2008, and although he was only 16, he didn't look out of place at all among the stars of the Arsenal first team. The hope was that we might get to see some of him in the first team that season but it never really happened.

When he wasn't getting his game on last season, he went out on loan to Bolton for the second half of the season. Some people think that he learned how to look after himself at Bolton but he was able to do that when he played in the Emirates Cup almost two years earlier.

At the moment, he's still finding his feet in the first team, but there's no doubt that he brings an extra dimension to the Arsenal team when he plays. Cesc Fabregas says that Wilshere is a better player than he was at that age and it's hard to argue with a statement like that. Exactly how good he will become is anybody's guess, but he has all the right attributes to become a true Arsenal legend.

He may not have scored too many goals in his short Arsenal career, yet but I have no doubt about his ability to score goals of the highest calibre. Anybody who has seen the goal he scored for the Arsenal youth team against West Ham's youths a couple of years ago will realise exactly how good his finishing can be. That goal reminded me of Denis Bergkamp, and there can be no higher praise for a player than comparing him to the Iceman.

I'm sure the boss considered loaning him out again this season and there were plenty of teams interested in taking him on loan. He probably only stayed at the club because Cesc was still recovering from his World Cup exploits and Aaron Ramsey still had a long way to go to recover from his broken leg.

He got his chance early this season and he has grabbed it with both hands. In a short span of time he has made himself look almost indispensable to the team, and I am certainly looking forward to his return to action after his three-game suspension. Arsenal are lucky to have such a super young talent at the club and he looks like he will be a huge part of their future.

Alex Song:

In other news, my son told me he read an article yesterday in which Alex Song said that he changed his hairstyle so that it would be easier for his wife to see him on the pitch. Apparently she complained that too many players had dreadlocks and it was difficult to see him on the pitch, so he dyed his hair blonde. I'm no expert, but I do like reggae and surely the style sported by Song was in fact braids and not dreadlocks, but whatever it was it was better than his current "pint of Guinness" look.

I read a little bit about him and I was surprised to read that he is one of 28 children in his family. His father died when he was very young and his cousin Rigobert Song was apparently a father figure to him. I know the two of them have played together for Cameroon but I had always thought that Rigobert was his uncle.

It was also interesting to read that he married at 18 and he has two young children at the tender age of 23 himself. Managers like to see their players settled at a young age as it keeps them out of trouble, but 18 is a very young age to get married.

Next Up:

Arsenal play their next Champions League match tomorrow night when they travel to play Shakhtar Donetsk. After we beat them 5-1 at The Emirates a few weeks ago I'm sure they will be anxious to get some revenge. A win for them would almost guarantee that they qualify for the knock out stages of the competition along with Arsenal, and the chances are that Arsenal will rest a few players for that game. I'll preview that game tomorrow when we will probably have a better idea of what players travel and what players don't.

Fantasy Football:

With the weekend's games ending last night, the fantasy football is now up to date and I'm delighted to say that my team has continued it's climb up the rankings. Thanks to five goals on Sunday and Monday from Kevin Nolan, Charlie Adam and Luke Varney, my team managed 60 points for the week and to just outside the top 100,000 teams overall. I'm now up to 59th place in the league I'm running in conjunction with 11Gunners and crucially I'm only three points off my goal of the top 50 in that league.

That may not sound like it's a lofty target, but with 734 teams in the league it's not exactly an easy target, either. The league itself is ranked 66th out of over 213,000 leagues which is an achievement that I'm very proud of, too. Here's a look at how the top 10 in the league stand.

1	MahindraUtd	Ankeet Mahindrakar	70	608
2	Leave-Ma-Arcelona	Gurdeep Jugpal	61	602
3	Laverick 'N' Sons	Stephen Laverick	44	601
4	Izadie F.C	nazrul nazri	88	587
5	In Arsene We Trust	Sam Griffiths	42	584
5	RipRoarinReds	Cole Friedlander	58	584
7	Sura FC	Anand Wenger	66	580
8	outlawz FC	beck outlawz	60	578
9	Duds	Raghu Konathala	70	577
10	DUO's Gunnerz	David Okere	55	575

That's the lot for today.

See You Tomorrow.