West Ham: Missed opportunities paint the narrative for Jack Wilshere

Nobody, including Wilshere himself, would have hoped that his narrative for West Ham would look like this after joining in 2018 but alas, it is where we are.

There was a time when Jack Wilshere was on the top of the world. Leading the pack for Arsenal and the English international squad. But just like that, things can happen to derail your plans. So it was absolutely no surprise when he came to West Ham that he might be out from time to time.

In fact, time to time was the hope with how bad his injury status had been over the past half decade but when he got to West Ham the wheels essentially fell off causing him to only play in 16 matches since joining back in the summer of 2018 under the Pellegrini era.

In an article with Stadium Astro, Jack broke down his feelings about his time at West Ham, his feelings towards his ever-present injuries, and his optimistic plans to return. Although the play-write of him returning to health and succeeded for his boyhood club sounds awesome, it’s just not realistic.

In the article he said:

"“It hasn’t worked out for me, I’ll be honest, it hasn’t gone the way I wanted it to, I’ve missed too much football, I haven’t played enough games. I want to get back on track, get my career back on track, get playing games week-in, week-out and start to feel like a footballer again.”"

See, like I said… it all sounds good but will it every turn back around for the once budding legend? In some ways his story is very similar to another young English Hammer, Jack Collison. Collison might not have hit the big stage like Wilshere did but there back stories are the same. Young, hungry, cut down by injury and misfortune.

This summer the Hammers will have a big question to answer about Jack Wilshere in whether they want to keep him or not. If they can sell him this off-season they stand to make some money back before he would turn into a free transfer the following year.

The meaning behind “missed opportunities” isn’t based on his play but more so lack there of and at this point it seems that maybe both parties should just chalk it up as a loss and move on. Free up the cash and space for West Ham and get Jack somewhere that he could play for often and possibly get back into playing shape. It’s not ideal, but it’s probably what is best.