Jack Wilshere cruelly reminds Wojciech Szczesny of his League Cup final howler against Birmingham

Wilshere-Szczesny
Arsenal's 2011 League Cup final defeat to Birmgham marked the death of 'project youth' Credit: AP

From telling Gary Neville he was ugly while on-loan at Bolton Wanderers to leading the way on FA Cup-winning open-top bus parades, Jack Wilshere has never been short of a word.

Former Arsenal goalkeeper and fellow academy graduate Wocjiech Szczesny was asking for trouble when he posted a light-hearted comment on a Wilshere Instagram post that reminisced on when the pair lived in digs together. 

Wilshere posted the picture of his teenage self with the comment '#tbt to the digs days and living with the mad man @wojciech.szczesny1 can't believe he let me have my hair like this #stillbetterlookingthanhim'.

The Juventus goalkeeper responded with 'was that when your were still good at football' in a reference to the months Wilshere has spent on the sidelines through injury. 

That prompted a swift retort from Wilshere, who reminded Szczesny of his howler against Birmingham City at Wembley 2011 by saying 'no it was when you threw the carling cup away from us'. 

With the score poised at 1-1, Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster launched a goal-kick forward that caused confusion between Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny. The Arsenal centre back went to clear as the Pole came rushing out, but his last-minute decision to leave it backfired as the ball rebounded off Szczesny to Obafemi Martins. 

Arsenal missed a golden opportunity to end their trophy-drought against Alex McLeish's underdogs, and the shock defeat proved a watershed moment in that squad's development. 

Wilshere, Szczesny, Cesc Fabregas, Abou Diaby and Gael Clichy were among the crop of young player Arsene Wenger wanted to build his team around while money was tight in the years after the Emirates move. 

They never recovered from their Wembley debacle, falling away in the 2011 title race and crashing out of the Champions League to Barcelona despite winning the first-leg at home. 

Fabregas and Samir Nasri forced moves that summer, and Arsenal embarked on another re-building job. Injuries have taken their on Wilshere, though he made his first start of the season against Doncaster in the EFL Cup, while Wenger ran out of patience with Szczesny's disciplinary issues and finally sold him to Juventus this summer. 

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