Wilshere states Luker is 'close' to Luton's first XI following Magpies spell
Luker has impressed Hatters chief during pre-season
Hatters boss Jack Wilshere has revealed that young attacking midfielder Jayden Luker will remain at Kenilworth Road as his performances during pre-season have pushed him ‘close’ to first team contention.
The 21-year-old, who joined Town in the summer of 2022, has been steadily impressing during his loan spells over the last few years, starting out at Woking, as he then played 26 times for Grimsby in League Two during the 2024-25 campaign. Luker headed to Notts County last term, as although he suffered a serious knee injury in October, recovered to score the only goal for the Magpies in their 1-0 play-off semi-final victory over Chesterfield, and then started the final at Wembley as County beat Salford City 3-0 to reach League One.
He ended up playing 17 games in total, netting four times, and since returning to Kenilworth Road, Luker has caught the eye of Wilshere, scoring in the 2-2 draw against Barnet, while he also netted against Go Ahead Eagles B on Saturday, setting up Nahki Wells to tap home too. Asked if the midfielder, who is yet to make his senior debut for the Hatters, will now get a chance to break into the first team, Wilshere said: “I was aware of Jayden last year. When I first came in he was injured so I saw him around and people would tell me about him.
"Then he went out to finish his loan and played in the play-off final. I know how much they thought of him at Notts County, so he was someone who I wanted to see in pre-season. Since he’s been in, he’s been outstanding. Everything we ask him to do, he does to a high level. Technically he’s very good. Of course he can still get better at some things, but I would say he’s had a really good pre-season, he’s going to stay here and he’s close to the first team.”
Assistant manager Chris Powell is also clearly a fan of the young midfielder too, as he pointed to the importance of making sure Luker develops even further this year, whether that be with the Hatters or elsewhere once more. The ex-England international added: “Sometimes you’ve got to be a bit careful that pre-season can look good and then when the season comes around, he doesn’t get as much game time and we think, we haven’t really aided his development.
"When you look at his previous seasons, he’s been to Grimsby, he’s been non-league before that and then Notts County, played at Wembley, played in big games and it’s very good for his development. We’ve got to add to that now, but the way he plays, he’s definitely a type of player that Jack likes and he’s got some good attributes, really good attributes.
"Hopefully we’ll keep him here and we’ll see what happens with him. Young players, they need minutes, they need game time where they win games, they lose games, they have to show a little bit of character and resilience and that’s what loans do for you, especially really good loans, as we saw with Emilio Lawrence last year. So we hope that we do the right thing for Jayden.”