Manchester City need young players, preferably English, and it is believed they have identified Jack Wilshere as a ‘top target.

Good for them.

Used to picking players at will from Arsenal, the Citizens are possibly still under the illusion that nothing has changed and all they have to do is wave their chequebook and off the Arsenal men will run while the Arsenal hierarchy bank the profits.

But that isn’t the case any more.

Arsenal no longer have a need to sell any players and with Liam Brady, who has known Wilshere since he was just 10-years-old, claiming that the midfielder is ‘Arsenal through-and-through’ it is extremely unlikely that the player himself will agitate for a move.

Asked about City’s interest in Wilshere, Wengerdeclared any bid would be a waste of time’ and then added “Jack is an Arsenal player and the success of this club in future years will depend on how well the young players educated here do.

“He is very much a part of that future.”

Many forget that Wilshere is still only 23 and with a career interrupted by a number of ankle problems, the latest caused by a reckless challenge by Manchester United’s Paddy McNair which went unpunished, he has his whole playing career ahead of him.

Talk by many pundits of him ‘failing to fulfil his potential’ is premature in the extreme.