Luton add to backroom staff as Wilshere is thrilled to persuade Arsenal stalwart to join

New Luton boss Jack Wilshere has wasted no time at all in adding to his backroom staff with the addition of David Bridges and Tim Corcoran as first team coaches.

Bridges, 43, came through the ranks at Cambridge United as a player, going on to make over 400 appearances in a career that included spells at Kettering, Stevenage and also Braintree Town, winning one cap for the England C side too. He earned his UEFA B Licence whilst at King's Lynn Town and was appointed the club's first-team coach in February 2015, before becoming first-team coach at Southern League Premier Division club St Neots Town, leaving in August 2018 when he was named head of coaching in the academy at Lincoln City.

After spending over two years with the Imps, Bridges was appointed a coach educator for the Professional Footballers' Association, mentoring former Arsenal players including Wilshere himself as they worked towards completing their UEFA Pro Licence qualifications in February 2021, before returned to the LNER Stadium last year as assistant head coach to Michael Skubala for three months.

Corcoran, meanwhile, joined Arsenal on their facilities team as a 16-year-old and had worked his way up to become an integral part of current manager Mikel Arteta’s first-team coaching staff. Having been given his coaching opportunity by the Gunners’ former boss Unai Emery, the 40-year-old progressed from kit and equipment manager to study for his UEFA coaching qualifications, last year successfully completing his Pro Licence.

On adding Bridges to his team at Kenilworth Road, Wilshere said: “I’m really happy. Dave is someone who I’ve known now since I was doing my B licence. He helped me and then when I was on my A licence he was my mentor. When I got my first opportunity at Arsenal I asked him to be with me for the first few weeks, in that time he met some good players, some good people, and we learned a lot of good things together.

“He worked with the PFA, he’s someone who I trust, someone who first and foremost is a good person. I wanted to make it clear to the players, clear to the club that we are adding to the family, and we come here and you have to accept us. We’ll try and make things better but we’ll fit in with you guys, and he’s definitely someone who can do that. He knows this league, he knows players in this league and he knows what it feels like. He’ll help me when I’m thinking about planning a game, and if we’re going away somewhere I’ve never been, he will be able to give me a little bit of something I don’t have.”

Meanwhile, on prising someone like Corcoran away from the Emirates where had worked for so long was certainly a feather in Wilshere’s cap too, as he continued: “Tim is someone I’ve known for a very long time, 20 years, he’s an amazing, amazing person, someone who has been working very closely with Mikel over the years and also Arsene Wenger, so we share a lot of the same feelings and thoughts about football, but ultimately the main thing is good people.

“I trust Tim and everyone will get to know that he is the nicest guy in the world and his story is inspirational. If you are going to survive and have a career in football, you have to have a real deep love for the game. He used to walk ten miles a day to get to Arsenal in the early days and he did every job, because he has the same love for the game as me. He’s someone that will help us again move forward and give the place a lift because of the type of person he is.

"Personally it was amazing, because he showed a lot of trust in me. When someone leaves a club like Arsenal to come and try and help me help Luton that was a nice moment and when I think about these people I think back to relationships again and the importance of building them, because that’s all it is. I’m trying to ask the players to do stuff and if I don’t have a relationship with them, they don’t have a relationship with them, they’re not going to do it. So it’s all about building them and we’ve got good people in that will help us build stronger relationships that will help is on the pitch.”

With Chris Powell also arriving as assistant manager when Wilshere himself was appointed, asked if he expected any further additions to be made, Wilshere added: “I think we’re happy now, we’re okay moving forward. To be a successful club and a successful team in a successful environment, you need to always, always keep looking and keep trying to push people and try and find the edge, but we’ve got some good people here.

"Talking about the coaching staff, we’ve got the fitness staff and people in there, we can really build something I feel. We can plan better and try and keep the players on the pitch, but everyone’s involved, everyone’s together and these two will just add to that. When I got the job, I thought we have to make things better and my opinion is by adding these two guys it benefits Luton, benefits the players, benefits me.

"The main idea of it was how can we be successful? What do we need to be successful? We sat down with the club, with some of the coaches here as well, we’re keeping Kev Foley here with us, he’s been amazing. The ones I’m adding but Kev as well, they’re all important and I believe that they will help us get there quicker.”