A Quote by Jack Wilshere
I've had a bond with West Ham since growing up as a kid, going to Upton Park, looking up to the players.
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Obviously when you grow up in the area you love playing on the street, and to go from playing on the street with my mates to playing at Upton Park is a bit surreal, and 15 years on to still be in the heart of the West Ham midfield is quite good going!
My family have always been West Ham fans, so growing up, I used to go and watch them, and so I was a West Ham supporter.
When I left Liverpool, my aim was to get into the top six, and I was looking for a team that could get involved at that level. West Ham were brilliant at the time. They'd signed a lot of players, had a lot of money. But they've had problems since then.
If I was a normal player at West Ham and wanted to join a Chinese club, nobody would have said anything. But since I was a leader at West Ham and thought about that offer, I was suddenly a bad man.
I remember me being that kid growing up. Me being the kid that grew up going to games and being a ball boy and wanting a high five from Blake Griffin or the other players.
I always wanted to be one of the best players in the world like Zinedine Zidane, so it was great that I ended up playing at West Ham against some of the best players in the world.
I used to have acne when I was a kid growing up. You can imagine how serious that was in making you feel bad. And I had skinny bow legs. I mean, as a kid growing up, I was an insecure fella.
I actually had the chance to sign for Newcastle before I went to West Ham; I didn't in the end because they had got rid of their reserve team. There were a few clubs interested but I liked what West Ham had to offer and never regretted signing for them, I loved it straight away.
And at West Ham no one gives you a puzzled look if you get called up for your national team and players are never asked to play on injections.
My brothers and sisters have achieved so much in their lives and have had so much success, but I'm just 17, so I'm still growing and learning. Since I have grown up on the West Coast, it definitely is different than all of them growing up on the East Coast. It's a different lifestyle, obviously, California vs. New York.
A role I grew up with and always loved was James Bond. I'd even say, in some ways, that he served as a creative role model for me as a kid in terms of roles I would want to play. I watched all of the movies growing up with my dad, so to be Bond himself would, without a doubt, be my dream role.
At West Ham, I was never able to buy the top-flight players. It was a case of looking around, trying to do deals. I was always taking a gamble.
Since Newcastle I've had a fantastic time at Blackburn and then here, at West Ham.
I think that with West Ham, it was more complicated for me. It happened naturally; there was urgency to leave West Ham.
I've been dreaming of this moment since I was a kid growing up in Tennessee: that one day, I'd have the chance to come here to Madison Square Garden and be the warm-up act for Elvis.
But I was so wrapped up in sports growing up as a kid, that I think I was going to grow to be a pro ball player. But I found out real quick that was not going to happen.
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