Wilshere happy that on-loan Hull star appears to want to stay with Luton

Hatters boss Jack Wilshere declared he was ‘happy’ to see on-loan Hull City midfielder Kasey Palmer intimate he would like to stay at Kenilworth Road although admitted talks on making that happen in the future haven’t taken place yet.

The 29-year-old signed on loan from the Tigers back in January and has been one of the few bright points of a disappointing run of form recently, with some excellent performances in the midfield, running the show against both Bradford City and Reading in particular, already becoming something for a firm favourite with supporters during his brief stint in Bedfordshire, not only for his tough-tackling, but also his silky skills and array of passing.

Palmer opened his account for the Hatters in some style on Tuesday night, as just before the half hour mark, he controlled Jordan Clark’s pass and then hammered a quite brilliant half volley into the bottom corner from just outside the box to put the visitors 1-0 up. During his celebration, the Jamaican international made a gesture about signing permanently to the Luton fans, and asked whether any discussions had taken place yet over such a deal, Wilshere said: “No, I haven’t, honestly I haven’t, I saw it and it’s nice that a player of that quality, a player of that level, wants to stay here and wants to help us.

"It’s credit to everyone here that the environment we create, because we probably haven’t got the results we’ve wanted since he’s been in, but he obviously feels like it’s a good place to be. It’s a place where he sees once we can find a little bit more rhythm, we can go in the right direction. He wants to be part of that, so that makes me happy, but I haven’t spoken to him about it. He’s a good player, he’s a quality player that can help us, that gives you that little bit of magic in the final third.

"How many times have we spoken about not being able to break down a low block, or we find it hard to create opportunities? I felt on Tuesday we created a few opportunities where we should score and get the second, but his opportunity is a half chance and you don’t see many players at this level who can take that touch under that pressure and finish like that.

"He’s someone that we love, we think he can help the club now and potentially going forward as well, but at the moment, we’re not thinking about that. We need to focus on now and trying to get closer to the play-offs and trying to win the next game which is tomorrow (against Wycombe Wanderers). Kasey’s in a good moment, so hopefully he can help us do that.”

One thing that Wilshere now wants to be able to get from Palmer is a 90-minute performance, as that can only help Town in their fading ambition to finish inside the top six this term. Having made 11 appearances for Hull before leaving, with three starts, totalling 421 minutes in all competitions at an average of just over 38 minutes per outing, he has now played one game more since moving to Luton, making nine starts, but also spent far more time on the field too, 796 minutes in total, at just over 66 minutes per appearance.

However, the last two games have seen him withdrawn in the second period, which against Reading at the weekend led to the Royals seizing the initiative to go on to triumph by scoring two goals late on, while when withdrawn in the week, it ended any real attacking threat the visitors had as they drew 1-1 with Doncaster.

On eventually not having to continually replace a player who has completed a full game just three times since his move, and once while at his parent club earlier in the campaign, Wilshere added: “We have to build up to that (him staying on). I think he’s played maybe 12 games before he came to us and now he’s featured in 12 games, so his average minutes is much more now. While he can and he will adapt to that, we have to give him time to do that. Of course I don’t want to take a goalscoring threat, one of our creative players off, when we’re trying to get a goal, but we also have to respect that we want him available for the whole season.”