PARTY-LOVING JACK IS TOO WILD FOR WENGER

In the end, it was all too much. not just the injuries. The shisha pipes, the notso-crafty fags, the unfortunate penchant for late-night confrontation, all those times Arsene Wenger must have wondered why Jack Wilshere wasn’t just happy working at his football.

To fall back to Arsenal’s sixth- choice in central midfield shows how little Wenger now trusts him. And it isn’t as simple as an absence of opportunity.

Few have had as many chances as Wilshere for club and country. Roy Hodgson wanted to build an entire formation around him, and was still trying to find ways to get him involved in the European Championship even though he was short of match-readiness.

It must have pained Wenger to agree to let his player go on loan this week. It was in 2010 that Wilshere was sent to Bolton Wanderers to ready him for regular Premier League football — to be travelling a similar route more than six years later is an admission of failure for player and club.

As Wilshere progressed through the youth ranks, Arsenal genuinely felt they had a unique talent — ‘the next Messi,’ one coach told me, or at the very least an English midfielder to rival Paul Gascoigne. He is only 24 so there is time, but not much.

Arsenal are a Champions League club but it is unlikely Wilshere will find a route into that competition this season. So backwards he goes.

To think that Arsenal fans once feared they would lose him to a more successful rival. Ultimately, Arsenal tired of Wilshere before Wilshere tired of Arsenal. How sad.