Wilshere glad to know Hatters midfielder was 'disappointed' at being left out
Wilshere happy to know Hatters midfielder was 'disappointed' at being left out
Luton boss Jack Wilshere was glad to see midfielder George Saville express his disappointment after being dropped from the Hatters squad for the first time this season on Tuesday night.
The 32-year-old, who moved to Kenilworth Road on a free transfer in the summer following his release from Championship outfit Millwall, had started 19 of Luton’s first 20 league matches of the campaign, only missing the 0-0 draw with Rotherham United in mid-November due to suspension having picked up five bookings and also being on international duty with Northern Ireland.
Saville scored once and managed three assists in that time, beginning eight of Wilshere’s opening nine League One encounters before starting on the bench as the Hatters lost 3-2 at Reading just before Christmas. Although he was back in the side that went down 1-0 to Exeter City on New Year’s Day, the experienced midfielder has since been amongst the substitutes for six of the last seven third tier contests, not even coming on against either Lincoln City or Plymouth Argyle recently.
When the squad was announced at the Accu Stadium in midweek, then Saville, who began his career at Chelsea and has won 62 caps for his country, wasn’t named on the bench as Wilshere gave recent addition Kasey Palmer his second start in succession, opting to have the likes of Lamine Fanne and Emilio Lawrence as potential replacements, with Ali Al-Hamadi also fit enough to earn a recall.
Asked why that was, Wilshere said: “That was a selection thing. We brought in Kasey (Palmer) and again when we’re trying to pick a squad and I’ve spoken about Mads (Andersen) and Kal (Naismith), I had to wait right until the last moment to see if they were okay. Then I had to pick a squad the day before and I had to have a little bit of extra cover there and George was unfortunate. I had a conversation with him and he was disappointed naturally, I want players to be disappointed when they’re left out of the squad, but that was only a selection thing.”