Wilshere 'proud' as Luton win the race to sign Scotland U21 international

Luton boss Jack Wilshere revealed he was ‘proud’ that the Hatters were able to see off competition from the Championship to bring in Manchester City attacker Emilio Lawrence on a season-long loan.

The 20-year-old had been one of the Town manager’s main targets since his efforts for the Hatters last season, as after joining in January, he went on to score twice and earn six assists in 21 outings, part of the team who won the Vertu Trophy when beating Stockport County 3-1 at Wembley too.

His form unsurprisingly alerted other teams to his talents, but having chased his signature for the whole of the summer, Town were finally able to announce this morning, as Wilshere had always expected them to, saying: “I was always pretty confident it would happen. I said it to him after the last game of the season, I said it to his parents, I chased him all summer. We spoke probably most weeks, I understood his situation, of course he did well here last season, so he had a little bit of interest from the league above.

"I’m really happy, a little bit proud of everyone in the environment that we can get a player on loan, that he trusts us, the club that he’s at is really good at letting players out on loan and building them up that way, and they trust us, he trusts the staff, he likes the environment, so really, really happy and proud with that.

“In my head no (did Wilshere expect him to go a second tier club). I think from a young player's perspective, we should be okay with them having the ambition to play at a higher level because we want to get to a higher level as well. I was in constant conversation with him, I was ringing him, I was speaking to his parents, and I made my opinion really clear to him that I feel like for him to get to where he needs to be, this is the next step and this is the place he needs to come back to. So maybe a small (concern), but I was always confident.

“We spoke about a lot in the off season, about players we want to bring in and humility is a big one. Emilio is a very humble young man who had to fight his way into the team at the start last year. It wasn’t easy for him at the start, but he kept humble, he kept his humility, he kept the determination and ambition to prove himself. He got his opportunity and we always knew he had quality, but it was about adapting to League One. It’s different to under 21s football, but he did that really well.”

Speaking to the club’s official website, Lawrence mentioned just how much of a role Wilshere had in him wanting to return, eager to work with the former England and Arsenal star once more. Although happy to hear that, the boss preferred to deflect the praise to the rest of the squad and staff at Kenilworth Road, continuing: “It’s not just me, or the club, but the people in the club. That’s really important that we can create an environment that attracts young, hungry players from good clubs.

"I’m the manager of the football club and that’s nice to hear, but when I came here I wanted to create an environment that players want to be in and it’s all about the players. The players are the most important thing at any football club, we need them, I need them, we want them to run, want them to compete, and we want them to be successful for us.

"So creating an environment that’s player focused was really important and then focus on the development side of things. I believe that the way any team improves is you improve the individuals within it and the staff are really buying into that. That’s not just football, of course, football is one of the most important things and probably the most important thing as everything has to feed into football and so many things go into that and we’re on the right track with that.”

Asked if there had ever been a chance of snapping up Lawrence on a permanent deal, Wilshere admitted they had attempted to, stating: “Listen, he’s a good player, we want good players, but we also have to respect Man City and they’ve got a track record of being quite good at it, so we tried but it’s a season-long loan. We’re ambitious, they’re ambitious and I always think that’s the key that you can match their ambition. He’s got an ambition of playing at the highest level, we’ve got ambition of trying to get there, so it’s a good sign.”

Although Lawrence has signed the day before Luton’s trip to Reading in their League One opener tomorrow, Wilshere wasn’t too bothered about his lack of time to adjust to his team-mates having been with the club and the majority of his team-mates for six months already. It means he is an option on for the Hatters on the left-hand side at the Madejski Stadium, as the boss added: “I think that was probably why I was confident and okay with it being a little bit later.

"The one thing that we wanted to do with Kasey (Palmer), with Walshy (Liam Walsh) with Clicker (Jordan Clark) was keep that together and then improve around that. We worked really hard to try and create an identity and Emilio was part of that, so Emilio understands us, he understands his team-mates and for him to fit in again will be easier than bringing someone else in. He's played some games, he was with the loan group, but he’s played three or four games, so he’s okay.

"He’s trained the last two days, we’ve worked with Man City about what he’s done up to now, how many games he’s played, what his training data is like. He’s available, I have to make that decision over the next 12 hours or so, but we’ve got competition there. Benny’s (Benagr) come from pretty much nowhere, he’s taken his opportunity and he’s thrived with that. Gids (Gideon Kodua) has played there at times this season, so competition for places, it gives me a headache, but a good headache.”