August 10, 2014. Wembley. A 19-year-old Calum Chambers makes his Arsenal debut at centre-back in a 3-0 victory over Manchester City to win the Community Shield, protected by 22-year-old Jack Wilshere and 24-year-old Aaron Ramsey, the future of Arsene Wenger’s midfield.
May 3, 2025. Carrow Road. The day the future moved beyond the rear view mirror as, 4,177 days on from that triumph, 30-year-old Chambers is shown a straight red card after 16 minutes and has to solemnly trudge past those same two former team-mates, only this time as opposition managers.
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It is poetic that the careers of Wilshere and Ramsey, now 33 and 34, came full circle in what felt like an East Anglian time warp.
It marked 17 years since their paths first intertwined when they made their Arsenal debuts within two minutes of each other during a 4-0 win over Blackburn Rovers in September 2008.
They went on to play together 101 times over a decade at Arsenal and appeared in consecutive FA Cup final victories together in 2014 and 2015 — last month, they were appointed as interim managers of Norwich City and Cardiff City.
Ramsey and Wilshere in 2014 (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Judging by how they beamed about their dugout experience after Norwich’s 4-2 win over Cardiff it appears that, in a narrative timing only football can produce, the coaching bug bit them strongly on the same day, too.
On paper, Norwich against Cardiff — the home side eight places below the play-offs and the visitors already consigned to League One — was the biggest dead rubber going on the final day of the Championship season.
But this game carried meaning for the two men on the touchline, and could be what spawns the next two Wenger disciples after Mikel Arteta, who was the other man in midfield at Wembley in 2014.
For Wilshere, this was his second and last audition to lay a claim for the permanent job at Norwich in front of sporting director Ben Knapper, who brought him to the club as first-team coach in October after working with him at Arsenal as loans manager.
That is why Wilshere was animated on the touchline, barking at his players to continue pressing even when ahead. It felt like he wanted a statement win to underline his credentials after Johannes Hoff Thorup was sacked after a year in charge.
Come the Norwich squad’s lap of honour at full time, sections of Carrow Road were signing “Wilshere’s at the wheel” after taking four points from his two games.
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For Ramsey, who has been club captain since returning to his boyhood club in 2023, the game had appeared to be more about pride and attempting to end his three-game reign in charge unbeaten than personal ambition.
The romantic swansong at the club where his career started has not gone to plan but he ruled out the prospect of being a player-manager and stated his focus was on recovering from injury.
Ramsey has started just six games this season (Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)
After just 23 minutes, Norwich were 3-0 up and had hit the woodwork twice. All this despite Cardiff having the first three shots of the game and Ramsey applauding with his arms above his head at some of the build-up play his side had produced.
After the red card, however, Cardiff’s 10 men started plodding like they had been playing for 23 years. Ramsey has not done his coaching badges yet but he remained a picture of calm on the sidelines.
Cardiff’s 1,002 supporters, some of whom came dressed as bananas and hot dogs, decided that the only way to salvage the nine-hour round trip was to employ gallows humour and wildly celebrate their team conceding and fire beach balls in the air.
Ramsey managed to rally his team to win the second half and, after leading his players over to the far corner, he received rapturous applause.
“I have loved every minute of it,” Ramsey said. “I’ve got a few things to think about, that’s for sure. There are no guarantees either way but I’ve enjoyed it and I see myself out there in the future.”
Ramsey believed that he had “reconnected” the fans with the team and given them something they can buy into for next season, with owner Vincent Tan so unpopular.
With each passing question on his future, Ramsey’s straight batting gradually loosened and, when asked if he wants to be the man who brings his club back up, whether in a playing or coaching capacity, he gave the most unequivocal answer yet.
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“100 per cent,” he said. “I feel a responsibility to try to align everyone again. It has been a tough few years. I’m a fan as well and I realise exactly the things that they have been going through and the questions they have. But I am definitely open to grabbing this and realigning everything.
“If given that opportunity, we’ll see, but I am a Cardiff fan, I have come through the academy, this club means a lot.”
Ramsey’s contract expires this summer. He is still the captain of club and country but has made six Championship starts this season.
It has been a common tale since leaving Arsenal in the summer of 2019 as he has played only 7,172 minutes — the equivalent of just 80 full games.
His free transfer to Juventus was interrupted by injuries, a six-month loan at Rangers ended with him missing the decisive penalty in the Europa League final shoot-out, while his single season in France with Nice and two seasons back at Cardiff have been littered by injuries.
Having seen Gareth Bale retire two years ago, aged 33, and Swansea City midfielder Joe Allen announce his retirement on Friday at 35, does he have the hunger to keep coming back?
“I had the operation to repair my hamstring but I needed that regardless,” he said.
“If I want to go and play golf, that gives me a better quality of life. There are a lot of variables between now and being at the World Cup so that is going to be taken into consideration as well.
“I have loved playing football. It’s all I’ve ever known but having this little couple of weeks doing this and seeing the impact has given me something to consider.”
There is no better person to empathise with injury struggles, how difficult it is to end a playing career sooner than planned or what it is like to transition into coaching than Wilshere.
Persistent ankle and muscle injuries meant he made just 51 appearances in his final four seasons before he was forced to retire in July 2022 at the age of just 30.
Wilshere was coaching at Arsenal before moving to Norwich this season (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
“It is tough because it is all you know,” said Wilshere, who took up a role as Arsenal’s under-18 coach days after and helped develop Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
“With me, it happened over a two-year period and I was trying to hold on a little bit more when I knew my ankle wasn’t in a good place.
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“I know Aaron has picked up an injury now and muscle injuries in the past, but his is a little bit different. What helped me, and I know Aaron has got it as he wouldn’t have had the career he’s had if he didn’t, is the hunger to try to learn something different like coaching and how to do it.
“I remember the first six or seven months at Arsenal, I was trying to learn everything. It was like 13 and 14-hour days just trying to sit back and work everything out.
“Aaron’s journey might be different where he has to step straight into the first team but he will develop a lot because of his mentality.”
Wilshere said he was aware of not allowing it to become all about the sub-plot on the touchline, not least because Angus Gunn, Onel Hernandez and Jacob Sorensen were playing their final game for the club after a combined 489 appearances.
He did not exchange text messages, nor engage in anything more than a standard handshake before kick-off with Ramsey. The sartorial stakes were high but it may have been a score draw with Wilshere’s choice of light-grey hybrid of tracksuit and chino competing with Ramsey’s more relaxed navy and grey T-shirt look, which confirmed that he is definitely still on a player’s diet.
“I saw him when we met the ref before the game and that was a strange moment,” Wilshere laughed.
“His head must be all over the place but he looked comfortable on the side. I know it didn’t quite work out the way they want but he got a reaction.
“Even if Aaron goes on to play next season, this little spell will help him massively when he does go into coaching. I’ve got massive respect for him for taking this on.”
Wilshere is not sure what the process of appointment a permanent manager will be but he has spent the last two years assembling a future backroom staff for when he did become a No 1, an ambition he made clear to Norwich when he arrived six months ago.
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“I’ve loved it. I need a few days to take a breath — it’s been intense,” said Wilshere. “Chucking a marathon (Wilshere ran in London) in the middle of that probably didn’t help things.
“I’ve loved the intensity, the feeling of a little bit of pressure. When you are the head coach, or interim head coach, everyone’s looking at you.
“It’s happened sooner than I would have thought but I didn’t want to take that step into first-team football until I thought I was ready to make an impact. I’ve been a player and when you’re not quite sure about a coach or he’s not quite confident enough, you can feel it.
“I wanted to take my time at Arsenal, to learn how to coach because it’s a completely different skill and try and develop my way of playing. I took that step when I was ready. I feel like I’m ready to make an impact at this level.”
Having endured deep lows with Ramsey’s horrific leg break and Wilshere’s chronic ankle problems, the pair could have fallen out of love with the game. That did not happen.
Wilshere accepted time was up three years ago. Ramsey may yet defy Father Time for another year or so, if he believes he can captain Wales to the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico, but there is a new fire burning in them.
It is up to Norwich and Cardiff whether they want to ignite their managerial careers.
(Top photo: Wilshere, left and Ramsey. Getty Images)
