Wilshere wants another 'pinch me' moment when he hears the Kenilworth Road roar he was raving about
Town chief takes his first home game tomorrow
New Luton manager Jack Wilshere cannot wait for yet another ‘pinch me’ moment when he takes the walk across the pitch to his position in the dug-out tomorrow for a first match in charge of the Hatters against Mansfield, as he urged the fans in attendance to make sure the atmosphere lives up to the one he was raving about last year.
When appointed as part of the backroom staff at Norwich City back in October 2024, Wilshere joined a coaching team that was headed up by Johannes Hoff Thorup, the Dane only recently employed by the Carrow Road club for his first job in English football. With Town hosting their opponents from East Anglia on New Year’s Day, it was the visitors who came away with the points, Marcelino Nunez scoring a 73rd minute winner to decide a timid contest that hadn’t reached any near the kind of decibel levels Wilshere had been preaching about beforehand.
He now wants to see a marked change on Saturday, saying: “It’s going to be amazing, walking across the pitch, I’m looking forward to it. The last time I came to actually watch a game was when I was about nine, and I was here last year with Norwich, where we walked across the pitch and it felt strange at the time as in the Championship there aren’t any other clubs that do it I don’t think.
"I remember coming back here and my role with Norwich was to help support the gaffer and to let him know about places. He would ask me what it’s like going there, what it’s like going there and he asked me about Luton and I said, ‘let me tell you it’s going to be tough, they’re going to be in your face, they’re going to be aggressive, the fans are going to be aggressive,’ and we actually won here which we weren’t great away from home at times.
"I didn’t quite feel that, what I was saying to him, so that in the interview process, I really made it clear for me where we need to start and what we need to chase in the early days. We definitely have this week and I said to the players, all the work we do in the week, is to prepare for Saturday and Saturday is tomorrow, so we need to use that and bring energy tomorrow as we’ve certainly had it this week.”
Wilshere doesn’t think that will be a problem from what could well be a sell-out home crowd, as he made it clear he has already been made to feel very welcome by anyone of a Hatters persuasion since being appointed as Matt Bloomfield’s successor. He continued: “The buzz around the town, I think we have to use that, definitely tomorrow. My message to the fans was get behind us from the start. I’ve really felt that this week on social media, I think the players have as well, so from the start tomorrow we need to capture that and keep it going forward.
"I’ve said before, what is Luton about? Luton is about having energy, being hard working, winning duels, getting the fans onside. Modern stadiums now, fans are a bit far away, we’ve got a stadium where it’s close, there’s loads of tradition, loads of history and you actually feel it when you’re there and we need to use that for sure.”
For Wilshere it will be a moment where he comes full circle back to where he started out as well, as having been with Town’s Centre of Excellence, before moving away to Arsenal, then around 25 years later, he will actually be leading the club out for a League One battle. The ex-England star made it quite clear that he is absolutely thriving in his new environment too, saying: “My office upstairs looks on to the first pitch I was at when I first joined the academy here, so there’s been so many moments like that, so many pinch me moments as well.
"I said to my wife last night, lying in bed, this is amazing, I love every single moment of it and the love that the fans have given me on social media. Of course I know that they want to win games, so do I, that’s what we’re going to try and do, starting tomorrow. It’s been amazing, first of all for myself to be back and be on the grass is what I love, to be at the place where I started has been really good. I’ve enjoyed it, the players have been really good, the energy’s been there. Of course we’ve had some join us on Thursday (from international duty), but to have everyone back the last two days has been really good.”
With not too many Luton managers getting off to a winning start in their first game, Wilshere is naturally hoping to buck the trend and benefit from the so-called new manager bounce that often accompanies a new appointment, adding: “I hope so! I think there’s more than that, listen of course that might happen on the first game or whatever, but then we need to continue to work in a way where we’re consistent and we’re consistent with everything.
"How we play, the reactions when we lose the ball, the reactions to when we go a goal down, so there’s a lot to do. Hopefully the new manager bounce for me is like a confidence thing. It’s down to the players, to the manager to really bring that togetherness, experience it and show the fans that as well as then I feel the fans can add some energy to that.”