Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has insisted that Jack Wilshere has a future at the club beyond his season-long loan spell at Bournemouth.
Wilshere struggled to string together a regular run of games for the Gunners during an injury-plagued period, but has already started eight Premier League matches for the Cherries this term.
Wenger revealed earlier today that there are plans in place to offer the 24-year-old a new contract at the Emirates, and the Frenchman is confident that Wilshere never considered leaving despite speculation linking him with a permanent switch to the Vitality Stadium.
"I let him go this season because we bought Granit Xhaka, we have Mohamed Elneny, Aaron Ramsey, and I thought if he doesn't play regularly and wasn't fit enough to be in the position to start games...so I let him go. After, we see how he goes at the end of the season. If Jack comes back to his right level he will play for us," he told reporters.
"My feeling is I want him back. He always said he is an Arsenal man. If you only think about yourself then you go where you like to be. The word 'loyalty' isn't even the right word. He always said he was an Arsenal man. He's been educated here since he was eight or nine years old, he has gone for years through difficult periods where he didn't play and you look at the number of games he played in the last two years before he left us.
"I felt honestly a guy who has been educated here has another season where he doesn't play because I don't give him the chance, because I have some players who are fitter than him, it would be unfair. It was not a mathematical decision."
Wilshere is ineligible to face his parent club when Arsenal host Bournemouth on Saturday.
Barney Corkhill
