Jack Wilshere, Aarhus and a long seven-and-a-half years in football

In a 19-minute long sit-down with The Athletic last August, the only time Jack Wilshere came close to cracking anything resembling a smile was when he struggled to remember the identities of his close friends in football. Without a club after being released by Bournemouth, the sight of the one-time Arsenal and England superstar revealing how difficult it was to explain to his eldest child that no club anywhere wanted him, while candidly discussing the fact that his two youngest had never seen him play football and probably don’t know what he “does” was enough to bring a tear to a glass eye.

It was certainly a far cry from the cock-a-hoop Jack the Lad who got himself in bother eight years ago for singing anti-Tottenham songs while wearing shades and a bucket hat during the celebrations that followed Arsenal’s 2014 FA Cup win.

In the last six months, Jack has kept his head down, sometimes training with his former club and often training alone, despite not knowing what exactly it is he’s training for. Aged just 30, Wilshere should be in his playing pomp but not a single club in any of Europe’s top five leagues were prepared to take a punt on him. His reputation for having ankles made from biscuits doesn’t so much precede him as march in front of him loudly banging a giant drum while shouting “ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO THINK OF SIGNING JACK!”

One suspects that if somebody had arrived from the future in a time-travelling DeLorean to tell 2015 Jack that in seven-and-a-half years he’d be signing for Danish side Aarhus, he’d have laughed and presumed they’d mistaken him for Nicklas Bendtner. But it is off to mid-table Superliga side Aarhus that Jack is headed, in the hope of staying fit enough to prove there’s life in the old dog