5 great players who are poor role models

#3 Jack Wilshere

Jack Wilshere's off-field behaviour makes him a poor role model

Outside of a sending-off for Arsenal’s youth side earlier in this season, the on-field behaviour of Jack Wilshere has largely been fine. Off the pitch, however, Wilshere has proven time after time that he’s a poor role model as he’s behaved like a poster-boy for all of the bad stereotypes about footballers when it comes to drinking, smoking and acting more like a rock star than a professional athlete.

One of the most common criticisms of footballers in the modern era is that they receive too much money and fame at too young of an age, and Wilshere certainly fits that bill – he broke into the first team at Arsenal back in 2008 as a 16-year old, and his prodigious talents saw many observers label him as the future of English football; his passing and dribbling abilities in the creative midfield position saw him compared to Paul Gascoigne, even.

But he’s had a myriad of fitness issues that have seen him struggle to live up to his potential, and many of them could be linked to his off-field behaviour. We’ve seen Wilshere in hot water more times than can be counted for drinking and smoking off the field, and he’s even been in trouble with the law as well.

The summer of 2010 saw him arrested for his part in a post-nightclub fracas, and in 2011 he received a police warning for spitting at a taxi driver wearing a Tottenham hat. And in Arsenal’s 2015 FA Cup winning celebration parade, he got on the mic to sing obscene anti-Spurs songs.

In a nutshell, he’s a fantastically talented player on the pitch who’s also a poor role model off it, and his off-pitch lifestyle may well have affected his physical abilities, too. Perhaps those Gascoigne comparisons were fair ones indeed.