Jack Wilshere looking to save his career after last season’s unsuccessful loan spell at Bournemouth

NOBODY thought it would come to this. Not when it came to Jack.

There was a time when clubs would have been queuing around the block to sign Jack Wilshere from Arsenal. A rarified talent, with the swagger of a superstar when the ball is at his feet, Wilshere was the coming man in English football.

Suddenly, at 25, he feels like an outsider, peering into life in the Premier League after an unsuccessful loan spell with Bournemouth last season.

Arsenal, the club who cherished him, nourished him and nurtured him, have moved on.

They contest the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday and Wilshere is not expected to play a part in it.

He is still recovering from his latest injury but patience is wearing thin for the boy who came through the club’s fabled Hale End youth academy.

That year out, the 12 months he spent trying to save his international career, has done for him at Arsenal. He returned injured, just as Arsene Wenger predicted when Wilshere made the fatal phone call last summer demanding to leave the Emirates.

He forced his way out because he feared he would slip down the pecking order with England. That suited Wilshere but did not wash with Wenger.

He tried to protect his international career instead of fighting for his place in Arsenal’s starting line-up.

Aaron Ramsey and Mohamed Elneny are decent enough players but they should not be scaring off a player with Wilshere’s class. Bournemouth, whatever the attractions of playing for Eddie Howe’s side, was a bad move.

He barely made an impact, struggling to dominate or influence games in the way he used to do in the colours of Arsenal.

At times he was overwhelmed — as he was against champions Chelsea or in his last game for Bournemouth at Tottenham — in the centre of midfield.

Life as a top-level player seems to be passing him by.

As he continues his rehabilitation from the ankle injury sustained at White Hart Lane last season, he is in danger of becoming an Arsenal outcast. He fears he will soon be part of the ‘Bomb Squad’, the small clutch of players who have no realistic prospect of forcing their way back into first-team plans.

Mathieu Debuchy and Carl Jenkinson are in that group, waiting for another club to rescue their careers.

Wilshere should never have been in that position.

From The Sun