Wilshere: Pre-season is where it started for me

Arsenal and England superstar midfielder Jack Wilshere has revealed that a 2008/09 pre-season training camp in Austria is when he realised that he was ready to make the step up to first team action for the Gunners.

At just 16-years-old, Wilshere was told by Arsene Wenger that he would be joining the squad on the training camp, due to his previous impressive performances for the youth side.

Wilshere reflected on the experience for Arsenal Player: “We used to go to Austria after training at London Colney for two weeks.

“There was always loads of young players training for the first couple of weeks and then if you made the Austria trip you thought, ‘Okay, this is where it really starts’. I was only 16 so I didn’t expect to make it.

“There were 18 year olds around me but I got on the trip. It went from there really. We played a couple of games, I scored a couple of goals, and then we came back and I was involved in the Emirates Cup. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God I’m going to play at the Emirates in front of 60,000’.

“I started the first game – I didn’t expect to play any part in it – and then after that it was club day and I remember the boss asking me which number I would like, 18 or 19. That’s when I knew I was going to be involved in the squad.

“The boss was clever because he put me in for some games, took me out, made me train some games and then put me out again. Then he put me in the [team in the] Carling Cup and I thought, ‘This is the real thing, we’re playing in front of 60,000 fans against proper teams, proper men, at just 16’.

“I owe that a lot to the boss and I’ve learnt so much since I was 16 that it’s scary. I’m only 23 now but it feels like I’ve been playing for years, and I’m still learning with every game I play.”

Despite being the still tender age of 23, Wilshere is entering his fifth senior season for Arsenal, having also been loaned out to former Premier League side Bolton Wanderers, where he featured on 14 occasions and impressed.

The English midfielder has also gone on to win a number of individual awards, including being named the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2010 and was included in the Premier League Team of the Year, partnering former Arsenal teammate Samir Nasri in central midfield.

Wilshere has also won the Premier League Goal of the Season award for the previous two campaigns.