Jack Wilshere admits he would have stayed at Arsenal had Arsene Wenger remained at the club and it’s not hard to understand why as he suffers yet another injury setback.

Jack Wilshere moved on from Arsenal this summer and had no sooner got himself into the West Ham starting lineup than he picked up yet another injury.

Wenger was a massive admirer or the Englishman and, as we know, gave players all the time in the world to prove that they could get back to fitness.

Unai Emery, however, wasn’t prepared to give Wilshere any such guarantees about his role with the first team, and all involved agreed a move would be for the best.

“If Arsene had stayed I would have stayed because of the influence he had in my career and the trust he had in me. He gave me the armband and respected me a lot,” Wilshere told the Islington Gazette.

“So, I had pretty much agreed to stay. And then he left and that changed things.

“Arsene had said to me previously “stay and fight your way back into the team” – because I knew Arsene and knew he had trust in me, I knew I could do that and fight my way into the team.

“I knew that if I got myself fit and was training well that Arsene would put me in – and he did.

“But things were changing at the club and they were going into a new era and maybe it was time for me to leave as well.”

Rumour has it that West Ham, concerned about Wilshere’s brittleness, only wanted to offer him a one-year deal initially, and that’s understandable. Keen to show backing to Manuel Pellegrini, however, they gave him a three-year deal instead.

Wilshere has played just 334 minutes this season and has already missed more games than he’s played in after undergoing yet more ankle surgery.

His latest comeback has been delayed by a further two weeks, ruling him out of West Ham’s Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham on 31 October.