West Ham midfielder Jack Wilshere has revealed he would have stayed at Arsenal if Arsene Wenger had remained as manager.
Wilshere ended his 17-year stay at Arsenal over the summer when he opted to become part of the Manuel Pellegrini revolution at West Ham rather than remain at the Emirates without assurance over first-team football.
But the 26-year-old thinks he would have signed a new deal with the Gunners if Arsene Wenger had not moved on.
“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,” he 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.”
Despite having several problems with injuries in recent years Wenger was always supportive of his midfielder. That is another reason why Wilshere feels he would have stayed at Arsenal.
He added: “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.”
West Ham have had a tough start to the new campaign managing to win only two of their opening nine games in the Premier League so far.
Wilshere has made four appearances for the Hammers during that run and is yet to score or make an assist for the club.
They face Leicester away this weekend with Pellegrini’s side sitting 14th in the table.
The post Jack Wilshere: Arsene Wenger retirement is why I left Arsenal appeared first on Squawka News.
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