Jack Wilshere was at Arsenal for a long, long time.

The Englishman joined the Gunners’ academy when he was just nine years old. He came through the ranks and made his senior debut at the very young age of 16 in 2008.

Wilshere spent 10 years in the senior side before leaving the club in 2018. He played with a number of incredible players during that period, and he has often raved about many of them.

Jack Wilshere says Samir Nasri had the ‘biggest ego in football’

Arsenal signed Samir Nasri for £12 million from Olympique Marseille in the summer of 2008.

The Frenchman was an incredibly talented footballer. He was excellent on the ball, very versatile and had the ability to create chances and score goals. He was a typical Arsene Wenger player.

Nasri spent three seasons at Arsenal and played 125 games before securing a very controversial move to Manchester City in 2011.

Wilshere shared the dressing room with Nasri in those three years as a teenager coming through. He was probably looking for idols in that period to guide him into the men’s game.

The likes of Cesc Fabregas definitely did that, which is probably why he always raves about the Spaniard whenever he speaks about him.

His opinion on Nasri, however, is very different.

When David Ornstein asked Wilshere to name the player with ‘the biggest ego in football’ on The Athletic, he said without any hesitation: “Samir Nasri!”

Why did Samir Nasri leave Arsenal?

Nasri had everything going for him at Arsenal, but in 2011, he decided to leave and joined Premier League rivals Manchester City.

The obvious assumption at the time was that the midfielder chose the riches offered by the Sky Blues, but the Frenchman publicly claimed that it was Stan Kroenke who pushed him out the door.

He said in April 2013, as per The Guardian: “Wenger told me that, if Cesc left, I would stay, but Kroenke wanted the money. The coach told me we’ll only sign Gervinho. Cesc was already gone. I had only one year left. So, I decided to leave.”

However, Wenger remained adamant at the time that Nasri’s sale was nothing to do with Kroenke needing money. He was sold because he rejected a new contract and was about to enter the final year of his deal.