Destined to be a fixture at international and club level, one former Arsenal star has bemoaned his continued injury problems for wrecking the chance to resurrect his career away from the Emirates Stadium.
“It hasn’t worked out for me, I’ll be honest,” Jack Wilshere said to Stadium Astro and reported by the Daily Express, when talking about his move to West Ham.
“It hasn’t gone the way I wanted it to, I’ve missed too much football, I haven’t played enough games.”
In fact, Wilshere has only managed 14 Premier League appearances for the Hammers since joining them in August 2018, per Transfermarkt. Clearly, that’s not acceptable to the player himself, and it’s a fairly safe bet that the east Londoners would’ve expected much more from the 28-year-old.
On his day, the midfielder proved on regular occasions that he was one of the best in his position, consistently linking the play at Arsenal and providing an associative goalscoring threat when required.
To be able to sign him on a free transfer was a real coup for West Ham, though it appears now that Arsenal perhaps had the foresight to get rid of Wilshere at just the right time, because he’s never come close to reproducing his best form since.
Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine that after so long away from playing at the very highest level of the game, he will ever come close to that again.