Jack Wilshere has revealed his disappointment with Robin van Persie when he left Arsenal in 2012 to join Manchester United.
'I was devastated,' Wilshere told the BBC's 606 Savage Social podcast. 'He had just scored 30 goals the season before. He was our captain.
'It felt like we were just about to challenge [for the title] again and all of a sudden he left to go to our biggest rivals. It was difficult to take.
'I was there when Fabregas left, Nasri left, big players. If we had kept that team together I think we would have gone on to win the Premier League - and who knows from there?'
Samir Nasri left Arsenal for Manchester City in 2011 in the same summer Cesc Fabregas sealed a return to Barcelona.
For Arsenal supporters, Wilshere's words are similar to those of Ashely Cole, who over the weekend opened up on his departure from Arsenal to Chelsea and bemoaned the departure of a string of big names.
'When I first started at Arsenal, we had a core – the Keowns, the Seamans, the Vieiras, the Henrys, the Adams',' Cole told BBC Sport.
'When they started to leave, I felt there were holes in the culture of what it was that brought success. I just felt it was falling apart a bit, or there were gaps missing, and they weren't filled.
'So that transition in terms of finding myself in a different culture and the willingness and want to win, I went to Chelsea, and I had that.'
Cole left Arsenal for Chelsea in 2006, while Wilshere departed boyhood club Arsenal in 2018.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com