Norwich City: First-team coach Jack Wilshere profiled

They’ll recall the legendary display against Barcelona’s world class midfield in 2011, the PFA Young Player of the Season award in the same year or even his stunning strike against Norwich City, one of the all-time great team goals.

They’ll talk about injuries, about unfulfilled promise, how the heir to the English midfield throne was ultimately let down by the physical weaknesses of his body. Later they’ll remember brief spells at West Ham and Bournemouth, and the general sentiment of sadness when he retired at just 30 years of age.

But that’s not the Jack Wilshere the Canaries are appointing as their new first-team coach. His previous years as an elite player might inform his work in the modern day, but Wilshere’s coaching CV to date is what he’s been judged on in the offices of the Avant Training Centre.

Far from appointing simply an exciting name, sporting director Ben Knapper has decided that the 32-year-old embodies all the qualities Johannes Hoff Thorup needs within his coaching setup.

Cast an eye over his brief coaching career so far and it’s easy to see why, from connections with staff already at Norwich to playing style and philosophy.

The Canaries have looked beyond Wilshere, the player (Image: PA) For the first point one need look no further than the ex-Arsenal theme beginning to creep in at Carrow Road. Most obvious perhaps is the link to Knapper, whose time in the Gunners’ analysis team overlapped with Wilshere’s prime as a player.

Of little importance is the former’s knowledge of tactical efficiency under Arsene Wenger, but the latter knows he’s joining up with someone he trusts and understands in the training ground environment.

More beneficial to Knapper in this appointment was the time he spent as loans manager, when he saw Wilshere in his role as Arsenal’s under-18s head coach. That gives him valuable insight into his methods, insight that very few have been privy to, even fewer able to act upon.

Then there’s Tony Roberts, the head of goalkeeping appointed to replace Paul Clements after his departure. He too worked with Wilshere as a player, and was around the first-team environment when he was plying his trade in the 2010s.

That North London influence is starting to become what many expected when Knapper first arrived in Norfolk. It’s taken time, but suddenly connections with one of the world’s biggest clubs are sprouting up rather regularly behind the scenes.

City sporting director Ben Knapper worked with the 32-year-old at Arsenal (Image: Arsenal FC) That’s not the only theme that’s developing at City, however, with youth another consistent thread in the current Colney rebuild. It’s been apparent in the words spoken, the players signed, and now the staff hired too. Head coach Thorup is just 35, set-piece chief Nick Stanley 34, and Wilshere is set to become the youngest at 32.

But that’s not simply a token gesture; it brings with it benefits for players. It brings an ability to identify with a younger squad, it brings energy and new ideas, and that, it’s hoped, is what the new first-team coach will bring to Norwich.

It’s not just his age that helps that mission, though, given the aforementioned role he had with Arsenal’s under-18s. He’s just the latest in a series of staff to have spent significant time with young players, after experienced youth coach Thorup and once-Danish under-17 boss, his assistant, Glen Riddersholm.

Wilshere has spent his two years since retirement in charge of the youth side at the Emirates, making the FA Youth Cup final just nine months after his appointment, and that focus on maturing players is clear when he discusses the job.

Wilshere has worked with plenty of young players as the Gunners' under-18s coach (Image: PA) “There’s so much I've learned over the last two years, and I've still got so much to learn. I'm very aware of that,” he told the Daily Mail this summer. “Naturally you are [a father figure], because you see them so much, because you're there every day with them, you're building relationships with them.

“I think the first job as a coach, if you're really going to develop someone, is to try and understand the person first.

“Try and build a relationship with that person because then, if you have to be strong with them and demand from them, you know that they trust you and that they'll come with you. But also, if you need to put an arm around them as well, they trust you.”

Another element in Wilshere’s favour will be style of play, as he aims to transplant what he’s learned with Arsenal onto the City first team. The good news on that front is that the tactical DNA he’s been working with isn’t dissimilar to what’s been coined ‘Hoffball’.

He’ll hope to improve a system that’s also attached to possession, proactivity, pressing and attacking, and he’s used to putting style of play above all else.

“I loved it,” he told official club channels after a tough 1-0 victory over Hitchin Town for his previous team. “We suffered a lot in the first half. We were trying to do things the right way and play out like we do here at Arsenal, and they were aggressive in their press, jumping us all over the place. But we still tried to do it, so I liked that from us.

“Maybe we could have managed those moments a little bit better, but we’re Arsenal and we play a certain way.”

One detail many look to immediately when a new coach is appointed is the mentors they’ve worked under. Those who do with Wilshere will almost certainly be satisfied, with little coaching lineage better than that of Mikel Arteta.

The Spaniard worked under multiple Premier League stalwarts as a player and in Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff for three years, and he believes that his ex-team-mate could go onto big things.

“It is clear in his mind what he wants to do and the reasons why he wants to do it,” he said of Wilshere last year. “I think it is a big asset for the club to have him here.

“First of all I am really happy that Jack is part of the setup. I think he has done really well, he has brought something that was very necessary in the academy and around the place.

“These things are going to happen when people are doing well. You are going to get attraction, and then it will come down to him to make what he believes is the best decision for his career.”

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has praised City's latest recruit (Image: PA) Such endorsement hints at the perception of City's latest prospective recruit within the game. There's a feeling that this a real coup for the club, just eight months after he was linked with the top job at Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen. Some fans were hopeful of landing him as head coach before Thorup's appointment, and there will be predictable levels of excitement externally around his arrival.

If he can deliver on that then he'll be a powerful addition for Norwich, and another step in the right direction. Actions speak louder than words, of course, but the perception behind the scenes is that there's nobody better out there.