Jack Wilshere has admitted he probably won’t speak to Aaron Ramsey ahead of the former Arsenal teammates’ surprise managerial showdown.
The ex-England and Wales star played alongside and against each other on the pitch on plenty of occasions during their playing careers, but are now set to face each other in the dugout as the Championship season comes to an end.
It was announced on Saturday that Ramsey would be making the step up from player to interim head coach of boyhood club Cardiff City for the remainder of the campaign following the sacking of manager Omer Riza.
But if that wasn’t enough of a shock, his old midfielder partner Wilshere was then named the interim boss of Norwich City just three days later following the departure of Johannes Hoff Thorup.
To make things even more interesting, the former Arsenal teammates will play each other on the final day of the season in a showdown which could decide whether Cardiff stay up or are relegated.
After such a mad twist of fate, you’d think the two friends would have been straight on the phone.
But apparently not – Wilshere explained to Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent on talkSPORT Drivetime how he just hasn’t had time after a whirlwind week, and he doubts Ramsey would have either.
On Thursday he hosted the Jack Wilshere Golf Invitational – a charity golf day packed with celebrities and football legends to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
talkSPORT were at the course to chat to the main man at the event, which was obviously planned well in advance of his surprise role change at Carrow Road.
Oh, and he’s also running the London Marathon at the weekend. He’s a very busy man…
Wilshere told us: “I was saying to my assistant, the Arsenal under-18 head coach who was my assistant when I was there, I was saying, ‘Imagine seven months ago when we stood at the coffee machine if I had said to you: I’m going to be the interim head coach at Norwich, I’m going to get two games to show what I can do, and one of them games will be against Cardiff and they’ll be managed by Aaron’.
“I mean, that’s crazy. It’s crazy!
“I haven’t even spoken with him yet. To be honest with you, knowing now after my first few days as head coach, he probably hasn’t got any time, either. Maybe I’ll send him a text before.
“I think I’ll see how this weekend goes, because they’ve got an important couple of games for them and Saturday [Cardiff vs West Brom] is probably what Aaron’s thinking about.
“And also, we’ve got Middlesbrough to prepare for, which is not an easy game [and against another friend/foe in ex-England and Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick]. We can think of Cardiff after that.”
Norwich made the change in the hotseat after the team slipped to 14th in the Championship – far away from their goal of at least reaching the play-offs, as they did last season when they were beaten by Leeds United which cost former boss David Wagner his job.
Wilshere takes over a side that has only won twice in 14 matches, and yet have scored more Championship goals this season [67] than any team other than current leaders Leeds.
They have, though, conceded 66 goals – the fifth-worst defensive record in the second tier.
But when it comes to tactics and team selection, Wilshere admitted his job promotion happened so fast that he has barely had any time to think about his starting XI.
“It has been mad, especially this week,” he said. “You know, he [Thorup] was my first coach and he lost his job and it’s never nice, it’s never a nice feeling when that happens.
“The situation the club is in… it’s a tough time now. It’s about just trying to get the lads together, trying to get them in a place to perform.
“We’ve got two games left and they’re important games. When you’re a professional footballer, when you’re playing at this level, every game is important. And we have to find a way in the next two games to try and produce a performance that the fans can be proud of and try and get some results.
“But to be honest with you, I haven’t even thought about the team. It’s literally crazy. I’m saying that, but with everything that’s happened over the last few days, trying to get training sorted, trying to speak to a few players, see how they’re feeling.”
The 33-year-old, who started his coaching career as manager of Arsenal’s Under-18s, only joined Norwich as a first-team coach in October.
But, as talkSPORT host Bent said: “Bang, overnight you’re the manager. You obviously had this ambition, but probably didn’t think it would come straight away, or this quickly.”
How has he handled it?
“You don’t really have time to mentally prepare,” Wilshere said. “I didn’t really have time to. You get a feeling after we’ve had a few bad results and you get a feeling about the atmosphere not being great and the environment.
“I was behind the manager. We were all behind the manager and we were all trying to help him get some results and get some performances.
“And then, all of a sudden, you get a phone call and things change really quickly.
“Honestly, I got a phone call on Tuesday morning after our game on Monday, maybe 10 a.m. as I made my way to the training ground and I’ve been there ever since. This is the first time I’ve left!
“Suddenly I’m the decision-maker now, right? You’re speaking to the players, you’re addressing them, you’re their leader, they’re looking at you. Whereas when you’re a coach, you still lead in a certain type of way, but you’re led by the manager and what he wants and what the training session is. Now all of a sudden you’re set in the training sessions.
“As I said, I haven’t thought about the team, but I’ve got a job to do to prepare a team to go to Middlesbrough away, which is not an easy game.
“But listen, straight after this [interview] I’m going back to Norwich and straight back to work!”
