Jack Wilshere has joined Bournemouth on a season-long loan from Arsenal.
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The 24-year-old prefers, however, to remain in London, and is seriously consider the offer of Crystal Palace.
The presence of Bournemouth striker Benik Afobe, a former Arsenal team-mate and godfather to Wilshere’s child, may also have helped persuade him to move to the south-coast.
Howe knows Wilshere’s ability marks him as a standout player in the Bournemouth squad and believes the move could bring the best out of the midfielder.
The former Arsenal and England worldwide star Martin Keown has been giving his thoughts and answering questions from readers of the Daily Mail in the aftermath of this summer’s record breaking transfer window, which saw Arsenal chip in significantly to the more than £1 billion spent by Premier League clubs.
Wilshere, who has been capped 34 times for England at senior level, becomes the club’s highest profile signing of the summer.
According to transfermarkt.co.uk, Wilshere has missed a staggering 154 competitive games for Arsenal in his seven years as a member of the first team.
“We were contacted and asked, ‘would we be interested?’ We said yes and threw our hat in the ring but the player chose to go to Bournemouth, I think one of his best mates plays there”.
His injury problems have pushed him out of Arsene Wenger’s first-choice lineup, and he made a decision to go on loan after being left out of Sam Allardyce’s first England squad because of his lack of playing time. “He can complement our style of play and maybe add that missing piece to the jigsaw”.
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Wilshere has found opportunities hard to come by, with Wenger having signed Egypt worldwide Mohamed Elneny from Basel in the January transfer window and spent £34m to bring Switzerland star Granit Xhaka to the club earlier in the summer.
