Arsenal have still made no offer to extend Jack Wilshere’s contract, even though the midfielder is now less than three weeks away from being able to negotiate with other clubs.

Theo Walcott and Petr Cech have also not begun discussions over deals that expire at the end of next season, although the most pressing situations clearly now concern Wilshere, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, who are out of contract in June.

Yet whereas Arsenal have been trying for more than a year to extend the contracts of Ozil and Sanchez, there is still nothing on the table for Wilshere, who scored his first Arsenal goal in two years in Thursday’s 6-0 Europa League win against BATE Borisov.

Walcott also scored and, like Wilshere, needs first team football between now and the end of the season to have any chance of regaining his place in the England squad ahead of the World Cup next summer.

Wilshere, though, is highly unlikely to be loaned given his contract status and, while his desire has always been to stay at Arsenal, his wider preference for any permanent move is to stay in London or the South.