As Jack Wilshere observed, a lot has changed since the last time he turned his car down the long, winding lane into St George’s Park. Wilshere was not around to see all the branding – “The Journey Begins Here” – that went up under Sam Allardyce’s reign, then quickly came down again once Gareth Southgate took over. Even the interview suite is in a different place to the last time Wilshere pulled on an England tracksuit, back in the days when no one could really have imagined the best thing for his career would be a move to Bournemouth .
It has clearly been a wrench given Wilshere’s ties with Arsenal and the unusual line of conversation where, on the one hand, he sets out his reasons for moving away on loan while, on the other, he talks about how dearly he would love to see Arsène Wenger’s team win the Premier League, even if it meant missing out on a medal.
More than anything, however, there is the sense of someone who is starting to feel the move has been vindicated and, crucially, finds himself back in a working environment where he can “almost fall back in love with the game again”.
Wilshere has just come off the back of a three-match run for his new team where he played every minute. It may not sound much but consider the fact he had not previously lasted an entire Premier League match for over two years. The last time was Arsenal’s game against Manchester City in September 2014 and, by his own admission, it had started to play on his mind when his season-long loan at Bournemouth went through.
Wilshere’s first three appearances for Bournemouth came as a substitute. He started the next three but was taken off every time. “Then we played Hull, we were on our way to winning 6-1 and I was thinking: ‘This is the game, this is it – at last, I’m going to play 90 minutes.’ And then I was taken off.” It was the following week, against Tottenham , that he ended a run lasting 771 days. “It was a good feeling,” he says, with a rueful smile.
These are still early days and nothing can be taken for granted given the long, demoralising parts of his career when his body has been his hardest opponent and, by his own admission, the number of times when what has seemed like an innocuous injury has turned into something far more serious.
“The one last season was the hardest to take mentally because I had already been through such a lot with my previous injuries. I had come back, played for England, scored a couple of goals. It was the best I had felt for a while. It was a freak tackle in training. Just a little kick and I got this injury that took forever to heal.”
None of that is Arsenal’s fault but he had started to find it “a churn” going into the training ground every day for rehab and experiencing the kind of isolation that every player who has suffered long-term injuries will understand.
Had he actually fallen out of love with the sport? “I wouldn’t say I did,” is his first reaction. But then he pauses. “I nearly did. When you are injured – and injured for a while – it is hard. You have to go to the training ground and watch everyone go out to play. Then you go to the Emirates to watch them play the match. It was difficult at times.”
In the end, he also concluded Arsenal were moving on without him and that even when he was fully fit he was in danger of “being the player that comes on now and again, or starts the odd cup game here and there”. Being left out of Allardyce’s England squad provided hard evidence it may affect his international career and, plainly, a man of 34 caps does not regard Bournemouth as beneath him.
“It is different,” he says. “The training ground is smaller and the stadium is different but one thing which is similar is the way both teams want to play football. The manager [Eddie Howe] is really good like that. Even if things are going badly or we’re under pressure he wants to play out from the back and that suits me perfectly. There are a few things that are different but I really like the manager. He’s been good for me, we speak quite a lot and I am in a good place, I am happy.”
If his suspicions are right, he might still be out in the wilderness, England-wise, if he had stayed at Arsenal. Instead, Southgate has been to watch him play twice for Bournemouth and is satisfied the player’s fitness has already considerably improved. All of which leaves the question of whether the 24-year-old may resume his career at Arsenal next season or decide now that he should leave for good.
“It is a difficult one because I love Arsenal and I’ve had great times there,” Wilshere says. “If I go back and I’m still not playing then of course I will have to think about things but at the moment I’m concentrating on Bournemouth. I want to put myself in a position where I go back next year and I’m a better player. I’m fitter, I’ve proved to people I can play week in and week out and I’m ready for the challenge.”