Jack Wilshere has said that had Arsene Wenger still been manager at Arsenal he would have stayed at the club.
Wilshere ended his 17-year stay at the club in the summer when he left to join West Ham after not getting assurance of first-team football under Unai Emery.
But the 26-year-old believes had Wenger still been in charge he would have signed a new deal to remain at the club.
'If Arsene had stayed I would have stayed because of the influence he had in my career and the trust he had in me. He gave me the armband and respected me a lot,' he told the Islington Gazette.
'So, I had pretty much agreed to stay. And then he left and that changed things.
'Arsene had said to me previously "stay and fight your way back into the team" – because I knew Arsene and knew he had trust in me, I knew I could do that and fight my way into the team.'
Wenger was always supportive of Wilshere when he was recovering from injuries. That is another reason Wilshere feels would have seen him stay at Arsenal.
He added: 'I knew that if I got myself fit and was training well that Arsene would put me in – and he did.
'But things were changing at the club and they were going into a new era and maybe it was time for me to leave as well.'