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#2 Jack Wilshere
Outclassing Xavi and Iniesta in midfield of a Champions League knockout clash at the tender age of 19, but struggling to break into the West Ham starting eleven seven years later, where did it all go wrong for the man touted to be the next Paul Gascoigne?
Wilshere made his Premier League debut for Arsenal in 2008 aged just 16 years and 256 days, becoming the club’s youngest ever Premier League debutant in history in the process.
He truly broke out in the 2010/2011 season, and earned worldwide praise for his performance against two of the greatest midfielders of all time in a showing which belied his age, also becoming England’s 10th youngest player ever, and was duly recognised, as he was named the PFA Young Player of the Year and was voted into the PFA Team of the Year.
In the runup to the start of the 2011/2012 season, Wilshere had a stress fracture on his right ankle in a pre-season friendly with New York Red Bulls and was ruled out for the rest of the season, which marked the beginning of his downward spiral.
He was named Arsenal skipper in the increasing absence of Thomas Vermaelen at the age of just 21, which was a testament to how highly he was placed in the squad.
However, for all of his potential, Wilshere struggled to stay fit for long periods of time and found himself increasingly out of the first-team picture at Emirates, which prompted a loan move to Bournemouth in 2016, which ended in April 2017 after a fibula injury.
He returned to Arsenal at the start of the 2017/2018 season, and made his first start for the club in over 16 months in a League Cup clash with Doncaster Rovers, going on to start his first EPL match for the club since May 2016 in December 2017, which was also the first full league match he had completed for the club in over four years, while he scored his first goal in Arsenal’s colours in 928 days in the 6-0 Europa League win over Bate Borisov.
At the end of the season, it was revealed that Arsenal would not renew his contract and he was signed by West Ham, where injuries have once more hampered his contributions to just four appearances for The Hammers this season.
Having made his national team debut in 2010, Wilshere was named Man of the Match in six out of England’s seven qualifying matches for EURO 2016 underlying his technical brilliance, but has failed to make it to the 23 man squad for the 2018 World Cup.
Although some might argue that he still has time to get his career back on track, that is just wishful thinking, as persistent injury problems have robbed England of a player who had the potential to become one of their greatest midfielders of all time, which is made all the more hearbreaking by the fact that Wilshere is just 26.
