Jack Wilshere gave a brilliant speech to Arsenal's youngsters after they hammered Tottenham 4-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Wilshere, 30, was appointed Arsenal U18 head coach in July after deciding to hang up his boots. The former England international was tipped to become one of the greatest central midfielders of his generation but struggled with injuries through his career.
Wilshere is hoping to become a manager and has been given the chance to make a name for himself by his ex-club Arsenal. His U18 side made a tough start to the season - picking up just a point against Chelsea and Fulham - but now look to be firing on all cylinders.
Four goals from forward Omari Benjamin secured the points for the Gunners against their biggest rivals. Midfielder Damola Ajayi responded for Tottenham, who were reduced to 10 men when defender Jahziah Linton was sent off just before half-time.
After the game, Wilshere was keen to let his players know his thoughts about the display. While being filmed by Arsenal's social media team, he asked: "How does that feel?
"You deserve it. Every single one of you deserve it for your performances this season. We haven’t got the results we want, that’s fine, but we keep building. The way you train, your attitude, remember what I said to you before the game?
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"Look into my eyes. I saw every single one of you look at me and look at each other, and that is a performance which tells me you are together. You’ve all got passion, you’ve all got desire and you want to win. That’s the level boys.
"There’s some things in the second half we can do better, and we will get better because we keep working every day in training and that is credit to you. But the level of the energy that I asked for, the passion, pride, desire, that’s the standard.
"We have to get that every week, not just because it’s Tottenham. Every single week and we’ll blow teams away. Alright? Okay? After three, I want you to shout as loud as you can, so they know what it means to us. One, two three… Come on!"
Wilshere was tipped for superstardom after breaking into Arsenal's first team at the beginning of the 2010/11 campaign, playing 49 games in all competitions that season and winning the PFA Young Player of the Year and Arsenal's Player of the Season awards.
Although he went on to win two FA Cups, the Community Shield and 34 senior England caps, a lack of form and fitness restricted Wilshere to just 288 club outings for the Gunners, Bolton, Bournemouth, West Ham and Danish side AGF.
Explaining his decision to retire at 30 to The Telegraph, Wilshere said: "I just feel like there is something still in me that wants to get to a high level, and that probably won’t ever be as a player again. So if I can do that as a coach, why not?"
