Wilshere plays the "quarterback" role superbly. The deep lying playmaker. It's frightening how good he is, at such a young age, with such inexperience. It's the position i've always called for Cesc to be playing in our formation, but i would be quite happy with Fabregas to continue to play in his current No.10 role whilst Jack's in the team, doing the job he is. I honestly think he could turn into a better complete midfielder than what Cesc is. He's got such great balance and agility, and covers the pitch so quickly. His appreciation of the ball is something else. I think he played one poor pass all game today, and even that was still a successful pass. Did he actually give it away at all?

Anyway, it's what Denilson's been instructed to do for us for a couple of seasons now. Jack just does it 10x better.

So, ok...if we do lose Cesc, get 35m+ for him and JW can fill his boots {and we actually spend the money} then that's actually positive, yes?

I'm actually starting to believe he is a better player than Cesc was at his age, he has a long way to go yet but to run the midfield in an Arsenal shirt at that age you have to be special.

Once he starts scoring, he'll be the best player we've had since, er, Cesc.

Famous no 10 wrote:

So, ok...if we do lose Cesc, get 35m+ for him and JW can fill his boots {and we actually spend the money} then that's actually positive, yes?

fuck no. losing cesc will be a huge blow to this club. no matter what we do with the money.

wilshere played well today, but compared to a typical cesc performance, he was fairly average. i think people forget how good cesc really is. even when cesc has a poor game, he is still, usually, one of our 2-3 best players.

If our goal is to win something of note, depending on Jack at such a young age (no matter how good he will be) in any capacity after Cesc decides to leave shouldn't be considered as a positive, in my opinion. We've been there in the past and it had taken us a long time and a lot of effort before we finally arrived at the point where Fabregas can actually be relied upon throughout a season.

Wilshere has massive potential, but we need to use whatever amount of money we get from Barca to buy the best possible creative player. Then we can let young Jack steadily learn his trade under minimal pressure.

When Cesc goes next summer I don't think we need a like for like midfield replacement at all. I'd much rather see the money spent on the forward line or the defence than an attacking midfielder.

By the way, Barca are broke. They're saying they need 3 years to recover financially. How on earth are they going to afford Fabregas?

We couldn't replace Cesc directly, but i'd be confident that if the money was spent correctly (as qs puts it, on a strike line), then we could become a new side capable of being better than the current one.

Agreed. Like with previous big players, the team will most likely accomodate his loss as oppose to a straight swap with a new player.

James wrote:

We couldn't replace Cesc directly, but i'd be confident that if the money was spent correctly (as qs puts it, on a strike line), then we could become a new side capable of being better than the current one.

we could, but i don't think it's very likely. i think it would be extremely difficult finding a player who could actually improve this team relative to today's team, if fabregas leaves.

not to mention, would wenger be willing to even spend the money necessary to do so?

There is the real issue. Wenger is highly unlikely to stump up £40milliion bids for the Iniesta/Sneijders of this world, so I would expect him to look internally.

Personally, if this is most likely the case, I think we could do a lot worse than seeing Wilshere and Ramsey stake claims as they have shown themselves already to have influence on games from that central position. Obviously not to the level of Fabregas, but then I would argue it has only really been the last season and a half that Fabregas has really stepped up his level to what it is now. The others obviously have a certain amount of potential to work with in the mean time.

Ideally, we keep both boys. Hypothetically speaking, our best attack in the near future might include Arshavin, Chamakh, Walcott, Wilshere and Fabregas. They have enough movement and goals amongst them.

The only upgrades that we might look to would be Chamakh (a better finisher) and Walcott (someone who isn't made of glass).

The truth is the maniac known as Wenger is actually building towards something. A goalie here, a defensive midfielder there, and we have a decent team. Sprinkle with better defensive coaching.

maybe. but it's hard to see us improving after fabregas leaves. wilshere and ramsey both have a lot of growing up to do (literally and figuratively) before they can really dominate matches consistently. arshavin's in his decline phase, too, so by then we'll be short of penetration and goal threat from the attack.

as others have said, i dont think we'll make the necessary investments to stop this merry-go-round of talent. it seems once we plug one hole, someone leaves and another one opens up.

Better defensive coaching being second only to keeping Fabregas imo. Fair enough, we' havent exactly had a settled back four for too many games but we're still careless at times.

Maybe a season playing with Wilshere and Barcas continued financial difficulties could see Fabregas stay on a bit longer. Thus allowing us to continue with a Song, Jack, Fab midfield for another couple of years. Add 2 centre halves under 25 in TV and Kos as well as either a resurgent Clichy or a come of age Gibbs with a still solid Alex Song, then a come of age, hardier more durable Theo as well as a mature, vocal, blistering Nasri and there are only a couple of areas to add to the team.

Anyway back to the real world. In the long term who plays AM and who plays CM between Ramsey and Wilshere?

Fabregas plays AM, Qs. He's still here, and there's no certainty at all that he'll be leaving any time soon. And that's not wishful thinking either.

If it was purely between Jack and Ramsey? I think that will be Jack's best position in due course. Much more to come from him in the final third than we've seen to date.

I think they can both play either position. Jack is more likely to be the better creator, so it might be worthwhile letting him playing ahead of Aaron, but they could cover the central midfield together. I am dying to see both of them healthy and next to Fabregas in our 4 3 3. These guys together could be a starting midfield for the next 10 years. They're all talented and they have big cojones.

Let me echo what Kel (and others) said about Fabregas. The kid is an otherworldly talent. I believe the reason that Fabregas is not in the conversation about world's best player is simply because he is not playing next to other great players. I struggle to think of the last world player of the year who played around mediocre players. I really hope we continue to tell Barca to f**k themselves with a broomstick; but also endeavor to put some star quality next to Fab.

I would rather see neither Ramsey or Wilshere in that number 10 role. We should have gone all out for Ozil in the summer but if Cesc leaves we'll have to rethink the shape of that midfield three in my opinion (and maybe we should rethink it anyway).