Why Jack Wilshere must choose between Arsenal and England as it's impossible to please both
Jack Wilshere's call-up for the Under-21s Championship is a classic club versus country row, and there will never be a winner.
Because it always comes down to exactly that: club or country. One or the other. Keeping both happy seems to be proving impossible. Fans either prefer club football or international football.
On the other hand, Wilshere believes you can have both. Wilshere wants to play in England's Euro 2012 qualifier with Switzerland on June 4 - and then join up with the Under-21s for their tournament which starts in Denmark a few days later.
Despite having played 43 games already this season, Wilshere insists that there is no danger of burnout and he is desperate to play in both.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, meanwhile, has already said he thinks it's a thoroughly bad idea.
Wenger had a bad experience with Theo Walcott in 2009 when the Arsenal winger went with the full squad to an end-of-season qualifier in Kazakhstan and then went with the Under-21s to the finals in Sweden.
Walcott clearly enjoys playing for England but maybe was less vociferous about joining up with the Under-21s than Wilshere. Having not had much of a summer break, he then spent much of the following season on the treatment table.
The FA's argument that gaining tournament experience is invaluable did not wash with Walcott as he did not make England's World Cup squad last summer.
Spain and Germany may be able to balance both - but England struggle. Barcelona's Sergio Busquets, despite being a regular full international, is likely to go with their Under-21s while Germany's World Cup squad had several Under-21 graduates.
The FA, and in particular Under-21 boss Pearce and development chief Trevor Brooking, want to follow the examples of Spain and Germany.
That's the reason they want Wilshere, Liverpool's Andy Carroll and Tottenham full-back Kyle Walker - all three have made the senior squad - to drop back down to the Under-21s and gain invaluable tournament experience in Denmark.
Fans will always retort that the Under-21s is for young players, and point out that after Wayne Rooney graduated, he didn't drop back down.
But that's the point. It hasn't worked, so the FA, to their credit, are trying to change and address the problem.
Wilshere, Carroll and Walker - now on-loan at Aston Villa and tipped to be Spurs' first choice right-back next season - can all gain something from going with the Under-21s, say the FA.
Tournament experience - learning to be away from home and being at a championships; so, for them, the kind of boot camp England had in South Africa will not be such a problem.
But English football is intense and demanding and there is no winter break, so a player's priority must either be club football or international football. One must take precedent over the other.
If England wanted to take the star player out of my team for six weeks as they closed in on the title so it would improve their chances for the World Cup, would I accept it? Probably not.
That's the decision people have to take. Because, as Wilshere, is proving with his club versus country row, you can't have both.
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