Arsenal have had many great midfielders represent them in their history.
Just looking at the Premier League era, your mind would immediately go to the likes of Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Ray Parlour and Gilberto Silva, before modern-day stars like Cesc Fabregas, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazorla and now Declan Rice came into the picture.
All of those names produced magic for Arsenal in their prime years, but there were a few who were robbed of incredible careers because of injuries.
Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky spring to mind, but the most obvious name in this category has to be Jack Wilshere. Without injuries, he was destined to become a superstar.
Jack Wilshere says he would’ve been around Andres Iniesta’s level without injuries
Wilshere is one of Arsenal academy’s greatest ever youth products.
The midfielder joined the Gunners at the age of nine, and just seven years later, when he was 16, he made his senior debut under Arsene Wenger. At the time, he became the club’s youngest-ever player in the Premier League.
Wilshere continued to progress and produced a number of eye-catching performances. He dominated Barcelona’s iconic midfield of Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta at the age of 19.
Everyone believed the Englishman would become an absolute superstar for club and country at that stage, but injuries ruined Wilshere’s career. He missed over 175 games due to multiple issues and ended up making just 197 appearances in 10 years as a senior.
There have been many theories about how good Wilshere would’ve been if injuries hadn’t hampered his career. But what does the man himself think he could’ve been?
David Ornstein asked him that very question, and the former Arsenal man claimed that he would’ve been around Iniesta’s level.
He said on The Athletic: “It’s hard because I didn’t really play like, when I was growing up and watching English football, my heroes would have been Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes. Joe Cole was probably my biggest, and maybe [I had] a similar game to him, like a technical player, a dribbler.
“I wouldn’t say my game was really like any of theirs. So, I probably look more at foreign players, and I used to love Iniesta. I used to watch him all the time. Of course, Messi, but everyone loves him. So I would say probably around Iniesta’s level.”
Iniesta is one of the greatest players to grace the game. He won it all for Barcelona and Spain and will be remembered for decades.
We’ll never know how good Wilshere would’ve been without injuries, but if he even got close to Iniesta’s level, Arsenal and England would’ve had a lot more success than they did.