Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere admits he's been around the first team since he was 14.
The England ace recalled the first time he was invited to train with the senior squad.
"I was 14," Wilshere told the Daily Mail. "A lot of the senior players were missing. I forget why. Perhaps they'd had a game the day before. But Thierry Henry was out there and I was just thinking, "Wow". One or two other senior players were there, too.
"But it was still a serious session and, even though I was only 14, Arsene still took me to one side and put me right on something I was doing.
"I think it was the first time he had ever spoken to me. He was commenting on my game, telling me what I should do. I play the way I do because it's the Arsenal way. It's the way we play the game; keeping it on the floor, passing the ball, playing it through the middle. It was the way it was done in that first training session and it was the same when I did my first pre-season with the senior players as a 16-year-old. And from the day I moved into the first-team dressing room, on my 17th birthday (January 1, 2009).
"Cesc (Fabregas) was there, Nasri had just come in; players like Toure, Van Persie. Lots of very good players technically. Cesc was probably the player who helped me the most. He'd been in my situation; a young player in the squad trying to break into the midfield."
