Arsenal

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From starting out at Luton Town aged seven, Jack Wilshere went on to win trophies at Arsenal and represent England at two major tournaments, before having to retire early because of injury problems and moving into coaching.

Now, he is back where he began - at Luton, this time as manager.

Immediately after his playing career ended, he was invited back to Arsenal to coach their youngsters and instantly knew management and coaching was for him.

"I hear stories about people struggling in retirement and I retired on a Monday, and I was in with the [under] 18s on a Tuesday," said Wilshere. "When I first went and walked through the door to coaching, I realised this is going to take over my life, and I need to commit myself to this if I want to improve."

By that time, Mikel Arteta, who had been Wilshere's Arsenal team-mate for five years, was first-team manager.

Arteta guided the Gunners to the Premier League title in 2025-26 - their first time as English champions in 22 years - and Wilshere felt the Spaniard had played a vital role in developing him as a coach.

"I got to see Mikel and how he coached and the influence he was having," added Wilshere. "I would ask him questions, why he's doing certain things, and I started to fall in love with it and how he started to prepare training sessions.

"I'd get an opportunity to practice that with the 18s in the afternoon and it was something I wasn't that good at, and I felt uncomfortable at times.

"I was influenced by Mikel, but then I had to learn how to teach. I had to learn how to get that across, how to plan a session and how to get the outcomes that you wanted.

"I played under some good coaches and was quite good at understanding what a coach wants, but I never dived into 'why is he asking me to do that?'. Mikel really made that clear and I was lucky enough to have a relationship where I could say, 'well, why do you want that?', and he was open enough to share it with me."

Listen to the full interview with Wilshere on BBC Sounds here

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BBC Sport contributor and Arsenal fan Watson says Manchester City should face "the harshest punishment" after they were found guilty of breaking financial rules.

He said: "This is the most damning thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

"This tops off Juventus [the 2006 Calciopoli case]. This tops off all the things that Nottingham Forest and Everton did in the past few seasons.

"It's a shame and it's sad. I always think to myself how low can a club go and these owners don't care about the fans. They don't. If they cared that much about the fans, they would have done it the right way.

"They should have the harshest punishment I will ever see in football."

Manchester City confirmed on Friday they are appealing against the guilty verdict.

Listen to more from Watson below or on BBC Sounds here

Real Madrid are showing an interest in Bayer Leverkusen's 23-year-old England defender Jarell Quansah, who Arsenal made a bid for in the summer and was the subject of an enquiry from Chelsea. (Bild - in German), external

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In this week's edition of The Football Interview, Kelly Somers speaks to former Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere, who is now manager of League One side Luton Town.

They speak about his earlier years with the Gunners, what made him want to start coaching and his relationship with Mikel Arteta.

Hit play below to hear the full episode or listen on BBC Sounds here

The Football Interview will be available on BBC One at 12:45 every Saturday during the Premier League season, as well as on BBC iPlayer, BBC Football YouTube and the BBC Sport website and app.

Football finance expert Kieran Magiure, has been answering your questions after Manchester City were found guilty of all charges related to breaches of financial rules.

Gary: Is there any chance this could be resolved by the end of the season?

Kieran: There is a very high chance it will be resolved by the end of the season. Because if it is not, we could end up in another situation very similar to that of Burnley and Everton where a club could be relegated and Manchester City are not given a deduction. And next season, a club that finished in 18th could say had that deduction been applied earlier, we wouldn't have been relegated. So that would add to the complications.

Certainly looking at the Premier League's press release itself, it does seem that it is very keen to resolve it as quickly as possible. If you take a look at the length of time that it took the commissions in respect to Nottingham Forest and Everton, once they have heard the evidence, applying the sanctions is the quickest part. It's listening to evidence that is the torturous process.

• Listen to a special Q&A podcast by hitting play above or on BBC Sounds

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Dappy: Based on everything you read, what is the most likely punishment going to be for Manchester City?

Kieran: I agree that it could be a very hefty points deduction and a transfer embargo at the very least. On top of that, I believe there will be a very significant financial penalty added into the equation. The logic behind having a transfer embargo is that it then becomes a multi-season issue.

If we go back to 2013 when City were in breach of Uefa rules, they had a transfer ban, wage and squad caps, it did impact the club in the subsequent season.

Rehan: If Manchester City get a huge fine, what would the FA do with that money? Where would it go?

Kieran: It would be shared by the Premier League clubs, including Manchester City. And it will be offset against the league's legal bill. Discussions with lawyers suggest they think City could be liable for about two-thirds to three-quarters of Premier League's legal costs, which is estimated to be in the region of £50-60m.

Get more reaction here

Sami Mokbel and Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport

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Bournemouth are not willing to entertain offers for midfielder Alex Scott during the January transfer window.

The 23-year-old made his senior England debut in Wednesday's 2-0 Nations League win away to Czechia but will be into the final 18 months of his contract come January.

The Cherries have had two contract renewal talks rejected before a summer window in which Scott pushed to leave the Vitality Stadium.

However, they remain steadfast that they have warned interested clubs that they will not welcome any contact over a move until their league objectives have either been achieved or are no longer attainable.

Similarly, Bournemouth would not entertain offers for other key players, including striker Eli Junior Kroupi, who remains sidelined through injury, and winger Rayan.

The club are competing on four fronts this season, including their first-ever European campaign in the Europa League.

Scott has performed well on the south coast and shown no signs of discontent but is known to ultimately want to join one of England's biggest clubs.

Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are among the Premier League clubs known to hold an interest in Scott.

Manchester City and Manchester United, meanwhile, strengthened their midfield options during the summer and are not expected to revive their interest.

Chelsea remain keen to sign a midfielder after seeing a £64m bid for Scott rejected during the summer.

They also missed out on Monaco's Lamine Camara on deadline day, held talks over a move for Roma's Manu Kone and expressed an interest in Fulham's Sander Berge.

Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola is also thought to have a positive relationship with his former player Scott. The Anfield club are known to be targeting a midfielder in future transfer windows and retain an interest in Camara.

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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The Premier League has opened a Pandora's box of problems which cannot be closed. However well-intentioned, however morally upright they mean to be, the way the product is perceived around the planet by fans will be negatively affected.

This looks like a gigantic mess, but could also become a bit of a joke, especially if they attempt to rewrite history, and change the winners' names on the Premier League and cup trophies over these past 15 years. I wouldn't want the engraver's job.

I believe financial rules brought in to prioritise financial sustainability were also aimed at limiting the money being spent by the clubs, especially the staggering, ever-inflating sums spent on sometimes fairly average players. It could lead to a de facto salary cap, which many fans would approve of.

The long-term problem for the league is easy to see here: if the top players are then offered significantly more money to play elsewhere, they will be off before you can say 'man on'.

I always thought the Premier League had taken a huge risk going down this regulatory road. As with Manchester City's future, nobody knows what the real long-term ramifications will be.

I have a suspicion it could end up being the greatest own goal in the sport's entire history.

The big take: If City are cast out of England's top leagues, what might the owners do – hang around the lower reaches, or find something else? Wasn't there the idea of a Super League? Keep that thought in the back of your mind.

Pat Nevin writes weekly in the Football Extra newsletter. If you're outside the UK and would like to receive it, sign up here.

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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Most of the time it is not that big a deal if you go into the international break having just lost a club game if I am honest, as teams lose games frequently.

That is just the life of a professional footballer. You have to be able to cope with disappointment as an individual and as a team.

‌Admittedly, players will sometimes say that they want another domestic game quickly, but it is almost always specifically after a 'bad' defeat as opposed to just a run-of-the-mill loss.

‌However, if the team has genuinely played terribly, or lost a game they were expected to win comfortably, you will commonly hear the phrase "we want to have a chance to get back out there and put it right quickly".

‌Players who have had a stinker, even if their team won, might also want to get out again as soon as possible to put it right in front of their fans, or 'reset'. The 'reset' argument is just current football jargon to say, "we will try to get it right next time, and we blew it this week, sorry".

‌The international break can also have the beneficial effect of taking your mind away from a bad defeat. This is not to say that you don't care, it is just that you must compartmentalise your thoughts and feelings. Footballers are among the best at this.

‌You simply cannot go to play for your national team and spend the time brooding about what happened against Brentford last week. That way lies madness and another poor performance, only this time in front of the entire nation.

Pat Nevin writes weekly in the Football Extra newsletter. If you're outside the UK and would like to receive it, sign up here.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona are among the teams interested in striker Erling Haaland and watching Manchester City's situation amid the possibility of sanctions. (Fichajes - in Spanish), external

Meanwhile, the Gunners and Manchester United are monitoring Porto's 22-year-old Portuguese right-back Alberto Costa, but face competition from Paris St-Germain. (Caughtoffside), external

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Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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Unbelievably, sensible and well-informed people are seriously discussing Manchester City getting a huge points deduction or being demoted or kicked out of the English leagues completely.

‌There is also reasonable talk about them being sued by just about every other major club in the domestic game, and a few beyond that. That is before you get to the concept of titles being stripped and trophies retrospectively re-awarded to others.

There is still an appeal to be heard, but they have been found guilty already. Serious consequences must be considered. Following the draconian punishments handed to Everton and Nottingham Forest, among others, City might find they don't just have the book thrown at them, it is the entire British Library lobbed in their general direction.

Those other clubs cooperated in the process. City have faced more charges and they involve larger sums and over a longer time period. In short, things are not looking good for the club that dominated English football for almost a decade.

This may be the biggest story in the Premier League's history and it is going to run and run.

Other serious considerations will follow hard on the heels of the Blues' dilemmas – specifically what long-term effects will this have on the Premier League? They will not all be good ones.

Some reasonably argue that the financial rules City have been found to have broken shouldn't have been put there in the first place. They were brought in to safeguard the financial security of the clubs and the league, but try telling that to many City, Everton and Nottingham Forest fans just now.

Newcastle and Aston Villa have plenty of financial backing, but these rules have hurt their ability to grow and stay competitive with the legacy clubs. This all feels unfair if you are a supporter of those two.

The money that will now be frittered away by the English game on lawyers and legal fees is eye-watering, and it will grow exponentially as the litigation increases.

Pat Nevin writes weekly in the Football Extra newsletter. If you're outside the UK and would like to receive it, sign up here.

Norway striker Erling Haaland, 26, is attracting interest from Arsenal and Real Madrid amid the uncertainty at Manchester City. (Football Insider), external

Meanwhile, Arsenal and Tottenham are monitoring Bayer Leverkusen's Algeria midfielder Ibrahim Maza, 20. (Teamtalk), external

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In the third and final part of our special Q&A, Arsenal reporter Alex Howell discusses whether the Gunners will look to bring in firepower in January.

Karl asked: Will we sign anyone in January? We are very early in the season, but I cannot help but think we lack a little firepower up front - when teams take away Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, we lack that va-va-voom.

Alex: Arsenal always say they are open to moving in the transfer market, if the opportunity allows.

The Gunners were exploring deals for forwards in the summer but they didn't bring one in, so that money will still be available. However, the issue is the January window can be hard to navigate.

Having said that, we saw that Manchester City were able to sign Antoine Semenyo in january 2025 and he helped lift their attack, so Arsenal will keep across their targets and would move if there is the possibility of doing business.

It also depends if the forwards in the squad find form.

The main criticism of Arsenal is that they don't play off the cuff, but Eberechi Eze can provide that when he is at his top level.

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Paul asked: What is stopping Arsenal or Mikel Arteta signing a world-class striker to really take this club to the next level?

Alex: The hardest bit when trying to bring in one of these players is that no club wants to sell a world-class forward because, as Arsenal have found, they are hard to come by.

They will keep pushing to try to sign one but, alongside the player wanting to come, there is an element of timing that also plays into getting one of those players over the line.

Scroll further down this page to find the rest of Alex Howell's Q&A.

In the second part of a special Q&A, Arsenal reporter Alex Howell weighs up whether not bringing in a world-class forward could cost Mikel Arteta's side back-to-back Premier League titles or the Champions League.

Richard asked: Are the reports of the sporting director not using the club scouts true? If so, what's the point in the club investing in all of the backroom staff if they aren't being used properly?

Alex: It is true that Andrea Berta is not as outgoing or as open as Edu, but he still involves others in the work he is doing.

It might not be as much as his predecessors, but Berta does still lean on the scouts for some of the work he needs done.

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Ivor asked: Do you think not strengthening the forward line will cost us the Premier League and the Champions League?

Alex: It is hard to say without seeing Arsenal's route or how they get on as the tournament progresses, but it is fair to say that it is a disappointment for them to not bring in a world-class forward after becoming champions.

They did try, pursuing Vinicius Jr and Julian Alvarez, but those deals are hard to do. They have incredible depth but I would agree they are missing a world-level star power in their frontline.

Kai Havertz has picked up a suspected hamstring injury, and we saw last season that Viktor Gyokeres had to play the majority of the games when he was out injured before.

But Mikel Merino is fit again and he is also a good option to lead the line.

Come back to this page later on Friday for the final part of the Q&A, which will look at Arsenal's ability to spend in the January transfer window.

Alex Howell
Arsenal reporter

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Kai Havertz will return to Arsenal from Germany duty after suffering an injury and being forced off the pitch during Germany's 1-1 draw with the Netherlands in the Nations League.

The forward came off with a suspected hamstring injury in the 30th minute and Germany head coach Jurgen Klopp had said on Thursday the 27-year-old was likely to miss the rest of the international break.

Klopp spoke to radio network RTL about injuries to Havertz and Bayern Munich forward Jamal Musiala, who pulled out of the game in the warm-up, Klopp said: "At the moment, both are on the MRI [scans].

"Of course, that's not great now. I just hope this is nothing bad. The boys are probably out for us, but hopefully then also relatively quickly available again."

The German Football Association has now released a statement confirming Havertz "suffered a muscle strain".

Havertz has made seven appearances for Arsenal this season, scoring three goals and starting all five games in the Premier League.

We asked you to send in your questions for our Arsenal reporter Alex Howell to answer. In the first part of a special Q&A, he addresses squad rotation and the plan for Max Dowman.

Larissa asked: Mikel Arteta seems determined to keep his favoured line-up every week, despite having two strong players in each position, except left of attack - is the squad morale beginning to suffer already?

Alex: The issue of a lack of rotation is definitely something that could have been put to Arteta in previous seasons. It is why Martin Zubimendi looked a shell of the player who started last season, after being run into the ground and playing some of the highest minutes in the squad.

It is right that Arteta has players he favours and he has previously used the example of how elite players in the game play every three days, but he has recently started to speak about how the demands of the schedule mean he needs to utilise the squad.

The signings of Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa show that he wants any player to come in and the quality of the starting XI not to drop. Arteta doesn't gift minutes to any player but now, with the depth they have, I think he will rotate more than in previous seasons.

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Brendan asked: Where can Arsenal send Max Dowman on loan? Brentford perhaps?

Alex: I don't think it is a definite that Dowman will go on loan. He has already shown he can make an impact in the Arsenal first team and he is only 16 years old.

He has so much time to go out on loan and Arteta may feel that keeping him around a side competing at the top of the table, and keeping him close so he can manage his development, is the best option at the moment.

• Read England Under-21s manager Lee Carsley's thoughts on Dowman

Keep across this page for parts two and three of Friday's Q&A, which will look at subjects including Andrea Berta's relationship with the club scouts, the need for a world-class striker and January transfer plans.

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We asked you to rate Arsenal's start to the Premier League season and tell us what Mikel Arteta should be focusing on during the extended international break.

Here are some of your comments:

Rachel: Arsenal seemed to start the season with intent and they delighted us with their slick passing game. Looking back, were they a bit over-confident? The defence has looked rather shaky at times. The same old story in front of goal has resurfaced and it's difficult to see where the goals will come from. Frustrating!

Richard: We've handed out and been given one tonking (Coventry and Brighton, respectively). That aside, the games have largely been pretty even but have gone our way. A good start overall but the Brighton game showed what can and will happen if we're not at the races.

Ivor: Start has been just fine notwithstanding last Saturday, which we'll put down to a bad day at the office. Team seems to be playing with more freedom. I watched the Chelsea game and some of the football was beautiful - almost Wenger-esque. The primary focus for this break should be to manage our injury list and to work on Eze as a left-sided attacker.

Ian: Fantastic start to the season. Slightly less than perfect because of the Brighton result, but also feel it's exactly what the team needed as every challenge faced so far they had overcome. Brighton deserved the win, and it gives Mikel and the team something to work on.

Dinyando: It's still early on in the season to say that they are not doing well. We just lost one game. I believe we'll come back stronger after the international break. I think we should make one or two signings in the January transfer window and the coach should accommodate Gyokeres more because we need goals.

Michael: Overall, good. The performance against Brighton was very poor of course, but I'm confident that will be a blip. Retaining the title may look harder than it did this time last week, but I'm still confident that we can do it.

Andrew: It's been good so far. I know we could get better and I know we will get better - what happened on Saturday will not happen to us again. Arteta will make sure of that.