Report: Jack Wilshere was close to a move to Trabzonspor this summer

At this point, we can say with close to complete certainty that Jack Wilshere was allowed to leave Arsenal this summer. In his eye-opening summary of Arsenal’s strange transfer window BBC’s David Ornstein tweeted that Wilshere was one of the several depth players Arsene Wenger was willing to let go, but the midfielder decided to stay at the club.

In the days since, we’ve gotten more concrete information about which clubs attempted to sign Wilshere, who is in the last year of his contract and hasn’t appeared for Arsenal in over a year. According to the website Turkish-Football, Muharrem Usta, president of Turkish side Trabzonspor, believed his club almost had a deal done.

“I held direct talks with Jack Wilshere,” Usta was quoted as saying by Turkish-Football.

“We wanted him on loan and were close to a deal but the move stalled at the last moment.”

The article does not say whether it was Wilshere or Arsenal who closed the door on the move.

Interestingly, however, Turkish-Football added on to its report today, saying that Wilshere has signed an agreement in principle with Fenerbahce ahead of a transfer this January.

So, Wilshere decided to stay at Arsenal this summer, but is already angling for a move two weeks after the transfer window closed? While that seems odd to me, everything transfer related recently has been so upside down and topsy-turvy at Arsenal that maybe this all makes perfect sense.