Arsenal and Jack Wilshere have grown apart - what next for the one-time saviour of English football?

Jack Martin traces the rise and fall of a player who seems to lurch from crisis to crisis

When Jack Wilshere graced the Champions League stage against Barcelona in February 2011, the skies seemed to have no limits for this young English starlet.

Matching his wits against Pep Guardiola’s magnificent midfield trio – Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets – Wilshere performed with adventure, flair and imagination as his Arsenal team came from behind to defeat the Catalans on a seismic night at the Emirates.

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Arsene Wenger had searched the world over for a player like Wilshere to execute his ideas of perfect football – style, pace and panache – and here, in this Hertfordshire native, he appeared to have found him.

Six years on, however, fortunes couldn’t be more different. From a homegrown wonderkid excelling at one of England’s biggest clubs, Wilshere is now staring into the abyss amid a career that looks to be passing him by. Numerous injuries, public misdemeanours and a lack of desire has seen the Englishman become a fallen and forgotten man at the Emirates.

And now the latest fall from grace – a red card in an Under-23 match.

Last summer, Wilshere turned to Eddie Howe and his young Bournemouth side eyeing a rebirth. The seaside club welcomed him with open arms taking on his huge £100,000 a week wages in the hope of benefiting from his mesmerising potential.

Yet what they got was a player who looked out of tune and a shadow of his former self. Wilshere appeared 29 times in the league, however, in very few of them was his performance anywhere near eye catching.

Bournemouth’s lack of interest in retaining the player at the end of his loan deal spoke volumes. You’d think a mid-table club like the Cherries would be fighting tooth and nail to sign a player who was viewed as the saviour of English football not so long ago.

Returning to Arsenal this summer has now left Wilshere in limbo once more. Clearly, with a year left on his contract, he hasn’t shown anything to suggest he’s deserving of a new deal or can fight for a place in the first team.

The Gunners, with three FA Cups in four years, are vying to move forward and reach the summit of English football once again. At a club where all, from top to bottom, are under severe pressure to deliver a challenge for the Premier League title, there’s no place for passengers.

The void left by Santi Cazorla’s absence should be made for Wilshere’s qualities. Indeed, five years ago, the incisiveness of his passes and cute dribbling would have made him the perfect candidate to replace the Spaniard. But that’s not the case anymore.

Struggling to get past the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny, Wilshere is an outcast in north London. It’s a massive disappointment for English football. Really, he should be leading Wenger’s side out every week and working his way towards being an all-time great.

At the club since he was seven, once it looked like Wilshere would be at Arsenal for the entirety of his career. Now it seems, he may not be there past his 26^th birthday.