Jack Wilshere right to shun Italian job - but now it's make or break at Bournemouth

Judging by some of the reaction to his deadline day move, you might have been under the impression that Jack Wilshere had committed an assault against the soul of football by choosing to join Bournemouth over AC Milan or Roma. A typically insular move from the most overtly English of all of England's footballers, a patriotic Brit who once possessed a Union Jack sofa and cushion combo.

You would be mistaken. Rather, the only thing this decision revealed was how determined, read: desperate, Wilshere is to revive his career. This is now the biggest season of his life.

Whatever the player's motivation, it is a fact that joining Bournemouth represents a humble moment in his career. It is a move which would have been inconceivable just a few weeks ago, let alone when the performances of a teenage wonderkid against Barcelona five years ago marked him out as the great hope of English football. "Jack Wilshere is the midfielder we have been waiting for," was the Guardian headline above an even more breathless write-up of his display.

Wilshere was not only compared to Gascoigne, Bergkamp and Brady in those early years, he was also thought by many to be an Arsenal captain in the making. He possessed the same belief, but at the age of only 24 his future at the club is more uncertain than ever. By the same age, Tony Adams had already captained Arsenal to league titles in two different decades.

If his reputation has been steadily eroded by a ruinous run of injuries in recent seasons, there was a reminder of the huge amount of ability locked up in that fragile but now overly bulky frame when, after Arsenal decided to make him available on loan, a reported 22 teams made entreaties to sign him.

To some, it was an affront to decency that he rejected overtures from Roma and Milan, two of the grand old clubs of Italian football with 21 Serie A titles between them. The clubs of Maldini and Totti; the San Siro and the Stadio Olimpico; the fashion capital and the classical capital of the world. Even worse, instead of joining these ancient members of the football gentry, it was Bournemouth, in the bottom tier of professional football not more than six years ago, who Wilshere chose to endow with his talents.

What could have possessed him to make such a decision? Apart from common sense and logic.

There unquestionably would have been something romantic about a move to Milan or Rome. But very quickly reality would have set in. A new country, a new culture, a new language, a new league and a new style of football. Not insurmountable challenges by any means, even if Wilshere doesn't strike you as a Europhile. But the question is this: what move would really have best suited the interests of the player and his parent club?

The reason Wilshere and Arsenal have taken their decision is for one reason only: to rebuild him into a player who can once again command a place in the Arsenal team and have some hope of fulfilling his potential, as deep and broad a reservoir as Lake Superior. This means playing football as often as possible for as long as possible, to the highest level possible. It means proving his fitness in the rigours of the Premier League. It means playing football next weekend, and the weekend after that, and the weekend after that. Not gradually easing himself in at Milanello, surrounded by the ghosts of Kaka, Marco van Basten and Paolo Maldini and marvelling at how great everything is and what a wonderful experience he is having.

This is not a loan spell with the intention of broadening horizons or adding a new flavour to Wilshere’s game, it is designed to rehabilitate him as a Premier League player and an England player, and it is hard to see how a spell in Serie A would further that end more than a move to Bournemouth, where he will be on Match of the Day every weekend and within driving distance for Sam Allardyce.

Although it is clearly the right move for Wilshere, it does heighten the jeopardy for the midfielder. An unimpressive season in Italy could have been explained by any of the factors outlined above; at Bournemouth, there is no hiding place. He is the most talented player at his new club, he is living just down the road from London, playing under a progressive manager in Eddie Howe and up front is Benik Afobe, one of his best friends and a player he grew up with at Arsenal.

If it doesn't happen for him at Bournemouth - if he doesn't turn in impressive, match-winning performances regularly or if his body doesn't hold up to the strain of weekly Premier League football - then it is hard to envisage how Wenger could avoid concluding that the midfielder’s time at Arsenal is up, that the abundant promise he showed in those formative years, when he lit up the Champions League stage even against the Barcelona midfield of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, has been frittered away. Heartbreakingly so.

Xavi, who saw that talent up close, spoke warmly of Wilshere this week. "He is a young player still," said the man who established the midfield model of the past decade, "and if he can put the injuries behind him, there is no reason why he still can’t be one of the best midfield players in Europe.”

It would have been inconceivable five years ago to envisage this future for Wilshere, back when the whole world seemed to be at his feet. But at least in choosing Bournemouth, he has given himself a chance, perhaps the last chance, of proving he can be that player again.