ARSENAL icon Jack Wilshere gave a passionate team talk to his Under-18s side after they defeated bitter rivals Tottenham in a North London derby on Saturday.
Wilshere, 30, retired from his playing career last month after struggling to find a club.
However, just a few days after the announcement, he was appointed the new head coach of Arsenal’s U18s.
The former midfielder got off to a slow start in terms of results having suffered a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea and a 1-1 draw with Fulham.
But, he earned his first win in style at the weekend as Arsenal defeated Tottenham 4-1 courtesy of goals from 16-year-old Omari Benjamin and 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri.
After the game, Wilshere gave a heartfelt team talk to the young side.
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He said: “How does that feel? You deserve it. Every single one of you deserve it for your performances this season.
“We haven’t got the results we want, that’s fine, but we keep building.
“The way you train, your attitude.
“Remember what I said to you before the game? ‘Look into my eyes’ and I saw every single one you look at me and look at each other and that is a performance that tells me you’re together, you’ve all got passion, you’ve all got desire and you want to win.
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“That’s the level. Okay, there’s some things in the second half we can get better at, and we will get better because we keep working every day in training and that is a credit to you.
“But the level of energy that I asked for, the passion, pride, desire, that’s the standard.
“We have to get that every week, not just because it’s Tottenham.
“Every single week and we’ll blow teams away.”
Many Arsenal fans were more than impressed with Wilshere’s passionate speech.
One person wrote: “Wilshere definitely learned a lot from Mikel Arteta. I’m sure he’s gonna be a top manager.”
Another added: “Great to see. After the injury hell that prematurely ended his playing career, I wish him success in this phase. Clearly still has loads to give football!”
While a third said: “So happy Jack is managing the kids, he is a proper Arsenal man and they will learn the values of the club.”
After the match, Wilshere revealed that he asked former Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas to motivate the the squad with a pre-match team talk.
He said: “I think it’s important the boys know what this [fixture] means to us, so if they get into the first-team they already know.
“Cesc was someone who taught me a lot about this game.
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“I knew about it growing up and going to Highbury and watching it. He scored once [against Spurs] just after kick-off and you could see the passion in his eyes. He taught me that, Cesc.
“I wanted to show them that and get a message from him. He was brilliant. The boys were a bit shocked but they were up for it after that.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
