Henri Lansbury has revealed his determination to follow Jack Wilshere by breaking into the Arsenal side and England senior team next season. Lansbury came through the Gunners' youth ranks with fellow midfielder Wilshere, who has emerged as a star for club and country during the past year.
Wilshere spent the previous season on loan at Bolton before being given his big break by the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, and Lansbury hopes his recent six-month loan spell at Norwich will produce the same result.
He has a chance to impress Wenger when he travels with England to Denmark for this month's European Under-21 Championship. "I think Arsenal's the goal now," said the 20-year-old ahead of England's warm-up friendly against Norway today. "I have to go back and give it a go from there. It's a chance for me to show the boss that I'm capable of a first-team place and it's up to me to do it."
Lansbury would not rule out a return to Norwich if necessary, having helped them earn promotion to the Premier League. He added: "It's always great to be promoted into the Premier League. Paul Lambert gave me my chance to do that and I thank him a lot.
"It was great, obviously, getting first-team experience again and playing week in, week out was great. Promotion's massive and to get that at 20 years of age was great."
Lansbury has also been inspired by Wilshere's elevation to the senior England team. "Jack's taken his chance and he's done well," he said. "He's a great player and I think it's a great bunch of lads here that can do the same thing."
The one downside of Wilshere's remarkable rise for Lansbury and his fellow England youngsters is the 19-year-old's absence from the upcoming tournament in Denmark.
Despite repeatedly insisting he would play, he was ultimately swayed by fears of burnout expressed by Wenger. The Liverpool striker Andy Carroll and Manchester City's Micah Richards have also been ruled out through injury.
Lansbury said: "They're great players. We've just got to focus on ourselves, really, and obviously go into the tournament strongly. We've got a great bunch of lads and we push on ourselves."
Despite that trio's absence, England will be one of the favourites to return victorious from Denmark. Apart from their opening opponents, Spain, Europe's traditional powerhouses all failed to qualify, giving England a real chance of going better than their 2009 final appearance. Lansbury said: "We've got a great chance and a great team spirit, talented players in the team and hopefully we can push on from there."
Henri Lansbury hopes to emulate Arsenal team-mate Jack Wilshere | Football | The Observer