Newcastle fans have taken to Twitter to reveal that they’d have Jack Wilshere at St James’ Park, after he was released by West Ham.
The England international released a statement on Twitter revealing the news, which also included him revealing that he’s been fully fit for the last eight months and David Moyes simply hasn’t been playing him.
Having said that, there’s no denying Wilshere has had a colourful injury history over the years. Transfermarkt states that the ex-Bolton man missed 53 games for the Hammers having suffered issues with his ankle and groin.
He played just 19 games in roughly two years for West Ham, after arriving in the summer of 2018.
TalkSPORT (via Glasgow Live) said that a move to Rangers cannot be ruled out for Wilshere, who played alongside Gers boss Steven Gerrard for the England national team.
Interestingly, Steve Bruce has previously said that he wanted to sign the playmaker for Aston Villa back in 2017.
When discussing Wilshere and Robert Snodgrass, the Magpies boss told talkSPORT: ‘Snoddy is somebody I’ve known for a long time – I bought him for Hull – so that’s something we’re looking into and exploring.
‘The Jack Wilshere one – hey, who wouldn’t want Jack Wilshere? But I don’t know whether we’re capable of landing him and let’s not forget he’s only 25. People have said that I’ve got millions and million to spend, where it’s been the complete opposite.’
It will be intriguing to see if Bruce still holds the same opinion three years on from those comments.
Newcastle certainly seemed keen on landing a new midfielder in the transfer window just gone.
There was interest in OGC Nice’s box-to-box midfield man Wylan Cyprien according to Foot Mercato and L’Équipe (via Get French Football News), but he eventually joined Serie A outfit Parma on a season-long loan deal.
Furthermore, a report from The Telegraph during their deadline day live blog (12:45pm) revealed that Bruce wanted Ross Barkley from Chelsea, but the fact that he couldn’t offload fringe players such as Achraf Lazaar, Henri Saivet and Rolando Aarons meant a deal wasn’t financially viable. Barkley eventually joined Aston Villa on loan.
The same report stated that Ruben Loftus-Cheek wasn’t a realistic option for the same reason.
Currently, the Magpies have Sean and Matty Longstaff, Jonjo Shelvey and Isaac Hayden to compete for a place in Bruce’s midfield. Bruce also allowed Dan Barlaser – another centre-midfield option – to join Rotherham on a permanent basis.
In that respect, Wilshere could be a good option to add to Bruce’s ranks on a pay-as-you-play contract, a similarly structured deal to the one which saw injury-prone Andy Carroll return to St James’ Park, as the Shields Gazette reported.
It definitely wouldn’t do any harm. We’d be getting a seasoned international with Champions League experience under his belt, and if he isn’t fit enough to play, then he isn’t hoovering up a chunk of our wage bill.
Arsene Wenger even once compared him to Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
ESPN quote the Frenchman as saying: ‘Jack Wilshere is a playmaker. He is a bit of a Messi type. He makes me think about Mbappe because I played him at 17 years of age because he was an exceptional talent.’
It remains to be seen where Wilshere goes, but some Newcastle fans on Twitter are definitely in favour of the idea.
Let’s see what they’ve been saying about the free agent…
Newcastle fans want Jack Wilshere signed after his release from West Ham…
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