In February, Jack Wilshere’s world was turned upside down.
The Arsenal under-18s head coach was preparing for an away trip with his team when he received a gut-wrenching phone call. His five-year-old-daughter, Siena, needed surgery to fix a hole in her heart.
That surgery lasted five hours and he described the wait as ‘hell,’ fearing Siena would die. The operation on her congenital heart defect was successful, but in the past few months he, his wife Andriani, Siena, and their three other kids have been feeling their way through a new reality.
‘It feels like a bad dream,’ Wilshere admits to Mail Sport. ‘It all happened so quickly. You hear a bit of news and your life changes. You have to give all your energy and all your support to Siena, while still understanding that you’ve got other kids and life goes on. My way of coping was not really talking about it.’
We speak as he visits Evelina London House, one of 14 free locations Ronald McDonald House Charities provides for families with children in hospital. The charity can be supported by donating in McDonald’s and via the McDonald’s app. ‘I’ve seen some of the amazing work they’ve done. Families will spend years going through this. If we can be there for each other, even if it’s just a chat or a little bit of support, I think it helps. Now I can talk about it a little bit more.’
Jack Wilshere has opened up on the ‘bad dream’ and ‘hell’ of his daughter’s heart surgery (pictured with his wife, Andriani, and daughter, Siena)
The ex-Arsenal star feared Siena would die during an operation on her congenital heart defect
The Arsenal under-18s head coach feared his daughter could die during her operation
He is supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities UK, who provide free accommodation for families with children in hospital
Wilshere urges people to donate via their local McDonald’s restaurant or via the app
It is this kind of help and support that has afforded him the ability to turn more of his attention back to football, and his role at Arsenal. He loves the responsibility and sees himself as a father figure to his platoon of apprentice Gunners, learning about himself and life along the way.
‘There’s so much I’ve learned over the last two years, and I’ve still got so much to learn. I’m very aware of that,’ he says, with a gigantic teddy bear eavesdropping on our chat in the corner of the room.
‘Naturally you are (a father figure) because you see them so much, because you’re there every day with them, you’re building relationships with them. I think the first job as a coach, if you’re really going to develop someone, is to try and understand the person first.
‘Try and build a relationship with that person because then, if you have to be strong with them and demand from them, you know that they trust you and that they’ll come with you. But also, if you need to put an arm around them as well, they trust you.’
The 2022-23 campaign saw his Arsenal side reach the FA Youth Cup final, though they lost 5-1 to West Ham at the Emirates, while last season they finished third in the Premier League South as top scorers with 83 goals in 24 games.
Wilshere, 32, is a passionate communicator who can relate to the dressing room. He made his debut in 2008 and understands the demands on modern players. A documentary series produced by Arsenal gives insight into his ways.
‘You guys have given me feelings that I’ve never had in football. I feel like this day now is written. We were meant to be here,’ he told his charges ahead of the 2023 FA Youth final, saying that taking the job was ‘the best decision’ he had ever made. ‘First day I came in, day one, I saw it in you. I see all of you have this fire.’
But what of his own fire? Naturally, you wonder how high Wilshere wants to go in a coaching world that can seem a Faustian pact, demanding your entire existence in exchange for fleeting rewards.
The 32-year-old is in his third season working as Arsenal’s under-18s head coach
‘There’s so much I’ve learned over the last two years, and I’ve still got so much to learn’
Wilshere sat down with families and explains how having a support network helps them
Pictured with his daughter Siena who was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect aged five
Wilshere wants to raise awareness and support Ronald McDonald House Charities
‘I’d like to challenge myself and try and try and get as high as I can in first-team football. I have similar dreams in terms of what I want to do as a coach (to my playing career). I’ve got a supportive family that would potentially come wherever I wanted to go.
‘But I’m also humble enough to know that I’ve got an education to go through, and I’ve got so many areas of self-development that I need to get better before that happens. But that’s the dream, and I was successful with the first goal, so hopefully I’ve got the same mentality, the same motivation to be as successful as I was as a player.
‘I’m happy in my role, but I think it’s more me understanding that it’s not just because you’re a good player that you’re going to then be a good coach. You have to learn the art of translating how you see the game as a player to a coach. You’re always adapting and trying to find new ways of working.
‘I actually think there are more hours in development football. The things that come with being an under-18s head coach in terms of education, they still have to go through an education process that I oversee, different things for their development.’
Elite football has always been intense, but the physical demands on the modern player seem to be expanding. The new Champions League and Club World Cup formats will only add to the strain, and clubs know that having a wonderkid in the limelight is extremely marketable.
Global players’ union FIFPRO found that Jude Bellingham had already played 18,000 minutes by the age of 21. Wayne Rooney had played 15,481 by that age, David Beckham a comparatively paltry 3,929. Bellingham said he felt ‘absolutely dead’ against Slovenia at Euro 2024.
FIFPRO and the top European leagues, including the Premier League, announced they would launch legal action against FIFA and branded the international calendar ‘beyond saturation’ and a ‘risk for the health of players’.
Wilshere, injury-prone during his career which ended when he was 30 in 2022, understands the perils of top-level football and advocates for toughening up youngsters if they want to thrive at the summit.
Wilshere managed 97 appearances for Arsenal and was selected 34 times for England
Injuries dogged his career meaning he had to retire aged 30 in 2022 and he is still wary of issues when he plays casually
He is an advocate for pushing young players hard to cope with the game’s increasing demands
‘I think that first teams around the country, including ours, they keep raising the bar, they keep getting quicker. We keep getting technically better, the mentality is different. So that has to change the way we develop, right?
‘We have to put more demands on the players, we have to push them a little bit more, and we have to understand as well, in a group of 24 like I have, the more you push, there might be one who gets injured.
‘Okay, then what do we do? Do we then set the bar there? Or do we go again and try and make him a little bit stronger? And I think around the country, academies are doing really good jobs at that, and we have to keep doing that.
‘We have to keep pushing. We have to keep training more, because you’re seeing monsters on the pitch now, and we have to try and give players the best chance of having a career.’
Once described as ‘England’s best player’ by Paul Scholes, Wilshere doesn’t play regularly anymore, perhaps the occasional seven-a-side with friends at a local level. ‘I still love getting out there and letting off some energy and just freeing up some headspace,’ he says, but he prefers to spend his limited time with his family and is wary of injuries.
More his style is golf. He insists we won’t be seeing him competing at The Open, but reveals he has a handicap of 11.6 – pretty good, according to this Mail Sport writer whose only forays into the sport have consisted of calamitous capitulations on indoor mini golf courses.
Who is the best player Wilshere has had the honour of teeing off with?
‘Mark Noble was good. I played with John Terry years ago, I’m talking in 2010, 2011 in the England squad when he was there. He was very good – I think he’s got better since as well.
He tries to play golf a couple of times a month and describes John Terry and Mark Noble as among the best he has played
Aaron Ramsdale is ‘really good chat, really good banter, good company’ on the golf course
‘I’ll tell you who I enjoy playing with. He’s not necessarily the best. He’s got really good chat, really good banter, good company to be around. I first met him when I was at Bournemouth: Aaron Ramsdale.
‘Obviously he came to Arsenal, and we kept that relationship, and he’s a really good guy to be around. I wouldn’t say he’s the best. He’s not bad at golf, but he’s not the best. He’s probably actually around my level. So that’s probably why I enjoy it the most, because he doesn’t always beat me.
‘I’ll try and try and get two or three days away with a couple of friends in the summer. I didn’t this summer, but the previous summers I have, and then I’ll probably, on average, play twice a month.
‘Shout-out to my local course, Essendon Country Club. That’s where I play the most. There are obviously some really good courses locally as well. I play at The Grove, which is amazing, but Essendon is my favourite.’
Our conversation then floats to my adventures rummaging through Wilshere’s Instagram, where I unearthed a snap of him with none other than Robbie Williams.
‘One of the best to ever do it,’ a beaming 34-time England star christened the Angels hitmaker in the caption. What’s the story behind that?
‘Growing up, my mum was a massive fan, and my dad actually. One year he played at Knebworth, and I remember my mum going into it. And I remember growing up in a house where you’d always play (his songs).’
A sports presenter who is friends with Williams invited Wilshere to come along to a concert and meet him backstage, where he was ‘starstruck’.
Robbie Williams is among his favourites and one of the only people he has been ‘starstruck’ by
He admits that he has been singing Taylor Swift songs to himself after taking his daughter to a concert
‘It was amazing, honestly. I’ve met some people and I’ve met some footballers over the years, Beckham included, but when I met Robbie, it was a wow moment.’
‘If I turned him on right now with a bunch of 16, 17-year-olds, they don’t even know who he is. Back in the day, yeah, I’d have had him on (in the Arsenal dressing room).’
At this point Mail Sport stumbles upon the scoop of the century as Wilshere gingerly reveals whose tunes are stuck in his head on repeat.
‘I‘ll tell you where I went on Friday – I probably shouldn’t say it out loud! – but I did take my 10-year-old daughter to see Taylor Swift.
‘I find myself walking around at the moment singing Taylor Swift, which is, yeah, not great.’
But that is nothing to be ashamed of. If life has taught Wilshere anything this year, it is how valuable moments and experiences with loved ones are.
As much as he loves his sports, he keeps circling back to the most valuable haven for his precious spare moments. ‘When you do have some time off, a few hours in the day, you want to spend it with your kids and your family.’
Jack Wilshere teams up with McDonald’s to visit Ronald McDonald House Evelina in celebration of the charity’s 35th Birthday this year. The charity provides ‘home away from home’ accommodation for families with children having treatment in hospital. You can help support this amazing charity by donating in McDonald’s restaurants as well as via the McDonald’s app.
