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Former Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has revealed that he reached out to Mikel Arteta before taking over at Luton Town. The Englishman recently took charge of the Bedfordshire club, who are 11th in League One.
The Hatters featured in the Premier League in the 2023/24 season, but have since suffered consecutive relegations to drop down to the third tier of English football. After a tough start to the new season, Luton Town named Wilshere as Matt Bloomfield's replacement this week.
The Englishman rose through the ranks at Kenilworth Road before he was picked up by the Gunners. Wilshere has previously been in charge of the north London club's Under-18 team and was a first-team coach for Norwich City before briefly serving as their interim manager.
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Speaking on Monday (via The Metro), the 33-year-old said that his situation is similar to when Arteta took charge at the Emirates in 2019.
"I spoke to Mikel and asked when he knew he was ready. ‘He laughed and said, ‘You just have to jump in and swim as hard as you can’," said Wilshere.
He continued:
"He’s obviously done that really well and I was close to that. This feels a little bit similar to that. Of course it’s a different level, but when Mikel went in, it wasn’t a nice place at Arsenal, the fans were not sure what was happening."
Wilshere registered 14 goals and 28 assists from 197 games for the Gunners.
Are Arsenal eyeing Real Madrid's Victor Valdepenas?
Arsenal have set their sights on young Real Madrid defender Victor Valdepenas, according to acclaimed journalist Fabrizio Romano. The Gunners already invested in the backline this summer by roping in Cristhian Mosquera from Valencia, but are now ready to return to Spain for another emerging talent.
Speaking to Men In Blazers, Romano added that prising the 18-year-old away from the Santiago Bernabeu will be far from easy.
“It is a talent that Arsenal have been monitoring for a few months now and is a player they keep observing. It’s not going to be easy at all because he’s a Real Madrid player, but the name is Victor Valdepenas, also called Valde is considered an important talent, a very young player from Real Madrid ya sector, centre-back, Spanish talented Arsenal have been monitoring him for some time," said Romano.
The north London side also signed Piero Hincapie from Bayer Leverkusen this summer on a season-long loan to bolster their defence.
