Pellegrini: I’ll get Jack back in England team

MANUEL PELLEGRINI will not run Jack Wilshere into the ground but wants to help him make a speedy return to the England set-up.

West Ham’s new boss made the injury-plagued midfielder one of the first of his nine signings when Arsenal decided they could no longer gamble on his fitness.

Pellegrini remembered Wilshere (below) well from his previous time in England – when the Chilean led Manchester

City to the title – and jumped at the chance to lead his Hammers revolution. He is determined to wrap him in cotton wool and restore his fitness, skills and strength that once marked him out for greatness.

The Hammers boss (below) said: “First of all he is only 26 and has been unlucky with injuries. As a manager you can work in a lot of different tactics, systems, but if you don’t have good players it is impossible to be a good team.

“In the eight, nine years he played for Arsenal he showed he’s a different player. So if the injuries respect him, alone he will make the difference to us.

“I am confident we can make him an England player again. Technical players make the difference and Jack is one of those special kinds of players.”

Pellegrini begins his latest Premier League adventure at Liverpool today, a club that once interviewed him when he had just left Real Madrid.

He claimed then he was not ready, preferring a move to Villarreal and then Malaga to hone his skills, leaving Liverpool to appoint Roy Hodgson.

He said: “I have no regrets not joining them. My career would have been different if I joined them.”

And he added: “After two years in China it was good to come back to England. I have always said this is the best league in the world. “My championship medal is in a good place in my home in Chile. It would be nice to add another. Let’s see.”

TONY STENSON