Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal will hold contract talks with Jack Wilshere before the end of the month.
The midfielder told Standard Sport on Thursday there was “no date in the diary” for negotiations despite repeatedly expressing his desire to stay, and time running out on his existing deal.
The Gunners boss had previously claimed he would address the issue this month with Wilshere’s contract set to expire next summer but in light of the 25‑year-old’s latest comments, he somewhat mischievously revised that statement on Friday to the “end of December”.
“I will talk to him — I said the end of December and we are at the beginning of December, so it’s true that it’s not far, but I wanted to see as well how much he can contribute and last physically,” said Wenger. “He's an Arsenal man and, of course, it is important for him to be happy to be here.”
Wilshere made his first Premier League start for Arsenal in 577 days against West Ham on Wednesday and Wenger said: “I think it was an encouraging performance. He suffered certainly a little bit in the last 20, but we were in a position where we had to attack, so I left him on the pitch because, of course, he can contribute to that. But overall it’s a positive. He has been very patient and worked very hard.”
Aaron Ramsey will be sidelined for a further three weeks due to a hamstring injury and that increases the prospect of Wilshere earning a run in the team continuing with Saturday’s Premier League home game against Newcastle.
In Pictures | West Ham vs Arsenal | 13/12/2017
Wenger added: “I don’t know yet [if he will play] but we will see how everybody will be recovered. We play on Tuesday again and have four games in basically nine days so will have to assess how everybody recovers, but he had done well in the game we played.”
Shkodran Mustafi is in contention to feature against Newcastle after returning to training following a thigh problem. Theo Walcott is out with a groin injury.
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