Jack Wilshere opens up on his West Ham career, early exit and Manuel Pellegrini ‘disagreement’

Disaster spell | Jack Wilshere made just 19 appearances for West Ham

(REUTERS)

Jack Wilshere has opened up on his struggles to make an impact during his disastrous spell at West Ham, and revealed a falling out with former manager Manuel Pellegrini.

The ex-Arsenal midfielder, who joined the Hammers under Pellegrini on a free transfer in 2018, left West Ham earlier this year after his contract was mutually terminated. The 28-year-old made just 19 appearances during his time in east London, scoring once, and is now a free agent training in Dubai in order to regain fitness.

Pellegrini pushed hard to secure a three-year deal for the England international when he joined, but was unable to settle Wilshere in his side after he missed the majority of his first season at the club. Wilshere returned to fitness towards the end of that term, but revealed a "disagreement" early in his second saw him fall out of the side.

"I had a go with the first manager," Wilshere told the ITV Football Show. "The first season was a disaster in terms of missing games and not being available. I got myself really fit towards the end of the season and came on a few times, I had a really strong off season where I came back to pre-season, felt really good and really fit. I even started the season, the first few games. Then I had a disagreement with the manager, as you can in football, and I dropped out of the team.

"Then I picked up a small groin problem which took longer than it should. Before I knew it am injured and the new manager comes in. When the new manager came in it felt like it was going to be a really good thing for me, I felt like that was what I needed. When the manager came in I spoke to him straight away, he was like: 'I need you to get fit, you're part of my plans'."

The arrival of Moyes should have brought a clean slate and a second chance for Wilshere, but still struggling with fitness - and then having limited opportunities to gain match fitness - the midfielder rarely got a chance. With West Ham in a perilous position, and Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek excelling in midfield, Wilshere fell to the fringes.

"Then obviously the lockdown came and we weren't in a good position in the league," Wilshere said. "Listen, I really enjoyed working with Moyes and thought his training was good - obviously I would [have] liked more opportunity to play, but I respected his decision because he's the manager.

"I felt like where we were in the League and we were going into big games, against big teams where we were defending most of the time. We were looking to nick a goal on the break and he wanted to play Dec [Rice] and [Tomas] Soucek in midfield and they were brilliant as well, I couldn't have any arguments with that. I just felt like there wasn't really a place for a technical player who wants to get on the ball and make things happen, it was more getting after second balls and intercepting play than trying to create."

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