Wilshere happy with smaller squad as he gets players out who didn't want to be at Luton

Luton boss Jack Wilshere is looking forward to working with a smaller group of players at Kenilworth Road after trimming his squad considerably during the transfer window, including getting rid of a small number of players who didn’t want to be at the club anymore.

The Hatters ended up with 11 departures during January as Lamine Fanne was sold to Venezia, while there were loan moves away for Christ Makosso, Zack Nelson, Joe Gbode, Reuell Walters, Lasse Nordas, Milli All, Ethon Archer, Jerry Yates and Jacob Brown, while Marvelous Nakamba was released from his contract as well, swiftly signing for Championship club Sheffield Wednesday.

With just five coming in, Devante Cole and Sverre Sandal on permanent deals from Port Vale and KFUM respectively, Emilio Lawrence, Kasey Palmer and Davy van den Berg all borrowed until the end of the campaign, it means that Luton only have 18 senior outfield pros available to them now for the second half of the campaign, although that number is boosted by four U21s in Joe Johnson, Gideon Kodua, Jake Richards and Lawrence.

Discussing just how important it was to have more of a slimline squad, Wilshere said: “We wanted to improve where we could, but we wanted quality and not quantity and I think we did that. We also got a lot of players out as everyone saw and that was important as well because I personally wanted players who wanted to be here. That doesn't necessarily mean that everyone that went out didn't want to be here, there were a few and we managed to get them out and bring in players that are hungry to try and help the club get back to where we want to be.

"We also had some players that went out that I see as future players for the club, but wouldn’t probably get the game time they needed right now, so I think we got that balance right and we can focus on the rest of the season. We can keep an eye on the players we sent out on loan to see how they’re getting on, see how they’re improving and developing, and also to keep some value in some of them as well, so overall I thought we had a good window.”

Having been appointed as Matt Bloomfield’s successor in October, Wilshere was able to work out just who wanted to keep and who he wanted to move on during his time in charge at Kenilworth Road, as he continued: “I was here probably three, three and a half months before the window came and I wanted to spend that three and half months, number one trying to win games, but also assessing the group, feeling what the mood was, feeling the culture, seeing the players that were hunger to try and help us, seeing the players that were happy to just float through until the window came and I did that.

"I spent a lot of time with the recruitment team, with the coaches, trying to assess that and speaking about what we think, what we want going forward after January and it was a smaller group. How many times have I spoken about picking a squad here is difficult? It still is as we’re still going to have players over that won’t make squads, but it gives those players a real belief that they are close, they can be involved and it keeps them hungry.”

With the nine players leaving on loan all at different stages of their career, Wilshere insists the chance of representing the Hatters in the future still remains a definite possibility for some of them, saying: “There’s some that we want to keep value in, we want to develop, we want to see where they are at the end of the season, if they can come back. There’s some in my opinion that couldn’t do what we were asking them to, but football changes quickly. Ultimately, if we get the goal that we want, which is promotion, then the team probably looks a little bit different next year and certain players that have gone out on loan will probably be able to help us, so all of that came into the thinking.

"That’s why it was so important we were all aligned with our thinking, the recruitment team and us as coaches sitting down, spending time talking about that and identifying where could add, if we could add as looking from afar before and spending a little bit of time last season involved in it, I knew this was a tough market in January. Things seem to happen late and there’s stuff that happens that’s just completely out of the blue, so we had to be ready for that as well, but we also had to be clear with what we wanted.”

On the two who went out on deadline day, Walters, who headed to fellow League One side Blackpool, and Brown, who joined Championship club Portsmouth, Wilshere stated: “With Reu he hasn’t played the minutes here he wanted to and for him to develop and for him to go on and have a career in the game, he needs to go out and play games and go through tough periods. Play game after game, play Saturday, Tuesday, and this season he probably wouldn’t have got the opportunity to do that here.

"Same with Browny, Browny’s a player who I’ve got a lot of respect for. He came back from a tough injury, a similar injury to what I had, so we spent a lot of time talking about it and it was clear he wanted to get out and play football and good luck to him. He’s gone up a league which helps us as well keep valuing him and I wish him well. It’s tough when you come back from injuries and I hope he finds his confidence, hope he finds his form again.”

With far fewer numbers in training at the Brache now, Wilshere also thinks it will benefit those who have stayed put, adding: “I think we can give more detail to the players now. We’ve worked incredibly hard to try and change the identity of the team or bring an identity to the team and I think we’ve done a really good job at doing that. That was a big focus when we came here as I thought that would identify what we did need here in January, who they were, and we added players who can help that.

"Having a smaller group gives us an opportunity to work more closely, work more individually with the players and the main thing for me is the hunger. I’ve spoken about it a lot, you see in this league that a lot of teams in my opinion won’t have the quality we have, but they have a real hunger to try and win games. I wanted to keep that in the group, I wanted to add to the group with that and I think we’ve done that really well.”