The Englishman joined the Arsenal Academy at the age of nine, after a short spell in the Luton Town youth programme.
After seven years playing for the North Londoners’ youth setup, Wilshere made his competitive senior team debut in a Premier League game against Blackburn Rovers in September 2008.
Despite a series of calamitous injuries which ruined his chances of fulfilling his potential, the 28-year-old made over 190 appearances for Arsenal before joining their London rivals West Ham United in the summer of 2018.
In an interview with the Lockdown Tactics podcast, Wilshere admitted he was reluctant to join Arsenal.
“I was playing for Luton and we were playing against Barnet and the ref was actually scouting for Arsenal,” he said.
“He came up to my dad afterwards and told him he wanted me to come along. He didn’t even say it was a trial. He just wanted to sign me for Arsenal.”
“It was strange because there must have been some sort of transfer window where that sort of thing could happen but, I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t want to go.”
“I was 15 minutes from Luton to get to London every day. My dad with his job he would have to finish work early.”
“My dad didn’t put any pressure on me but at the time. I didn’t know what to do. I remember it so clearly, I was nine and I was in the park with my mate.”
“My dad pulled up in his little red van and said: 'This is your last day you’ve got to make a decision'.
“I said to my mate: ‘F*ck it. I’m going to Arsenal’, and the rest is history. Fair play to my dad because we didn’t have much as a kid, he was a plumber.”
“He used to finish work at 4pm, then we’d be out the door and it would take an hour to get to London from where I lived and that was like three times a week from when I was 10.”
