With just six months left on his current deal, Jack Wilshere has opened up about his uncertain future and desire to play regularly in the Premier League.
Jack has been at Arsenal since the age of nine and, with just six months left on his current contract in north London, he admits that he’s starting to get concerned about his future now that his time with the Gunners could be coming to an end.
“Sometimes when I’m at home maybe you think: ‘What’s going to happen? I’ve only got six months left,’” Jack admits.
“It’s not just now I want to play – I have been wanting to play for ages. I have spoken to the manager and he knows I want to play in the Premier League. I also have to respect that the team has been playing well. I know we lost last weekend but before that, we were on a good run. It is a difficult team to get into. All I can do when I get an opportunity is play as well as I can and show the boss what I can do.”
The 25-year-old doesn’t just want to represent his club at the top level, he wants to play for his country, especially with the World Cup quickly approaching next summer.
Jack’s not played for England since their disappointing 2-1 defeat to Iceland during Euro 2016. Since then, injuries have kept him sidelined.
“I want to play for my country. I haven’t for a while,” he said. “The manager seems to not favour me, if you like, in that he hasn’t picked me recently.
“He said he wants me to be playing regularly in the Premier League and fair enough, that’s what I have to do.
“I have been playing in the Europa League and I’ve felt I’ve done well. If that’ s not enough then I’ve got into the Premier League team.
“Until I do that I’m not going to be in his plans. I accept that, and I will try and work hard to get into the Premier League team, and ultimately into the England team.”
Since he made a name for himself in Arsenal’s first team in 2009, Jack’s missed over a thousand days through injury. When you’re sidelined this much, I imagine there’s only so many times you can tell the fans that you’ll come back stronger before you stop believing it yourself.
“Of course I think I’m good enough,” Jack insists. “I felt that even when I was a 16-year-old and I was with players here who were international players, and I believed I was good enough to be in the team.
“If you don’t believe in yourself, then who is going to believe in you?
“All you can do is feel confident in yourself that if you get the opportunity to get into the team, you’ll hopefully improve the team. If the opportunity comes this weekend, I’ll be ready.”
However, now, Jack reckons he’s got his injury woes under control. If he listens to his body, speaks with Arsene Wenger and isn’t too proud to take a rest, he reckons he should remain fit.
“As you get older things change naturally anyway,” Jack says. “I know my body a little bit better. There might be some days when I have had to miss a training session and the boss has been brilliant.
“I have trained most of the time, 90 per cent of the time. But on the odd occasion when I am feeling a bit tired and know my body is at risk of picking up an injury I speak with the boss and he lets me stay inside.
“As I’ve got older I’ve got a bit wiser and learnt you can’t go out there every day and have to pick your time. Ultimately the most important thing is the game. You have to be fresh for the game and be ready for that and that is what I have been concentrating on more this year.”
Jack’s only made four appearances in the Premier League this season and none of them have been starts. However, for the most part, he’s impressed in the Europa League, even scoring his first goal of the season against BATE Borisov on Thursday.
It does seem as if his future hinges on whether he can make Wenger’s Premier League starting XI or not.
Back in November, the boss claimed that a decision would be made regarding Jack’s future in December. Therefore, I guess all we can do is wait.