Jack Wilshere knows he faces extra attention because of his elite playing career, but wants to be evaluated on his work as the new Luton Town manager and not on his past as an Arsenal and England midfielder, or alongside new coaching contemporaries.
At 33 years old he is the second youngest Hatters boss, nine months older than David Pleat at the point he was appointed in 1978, and he follows in the footsteps of some other high-profile Three Lions internationals to have made the jump into management, with the likes of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney before him, plus former club-mate and current Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
Inevitably, there is added scrutiny that ex-players face when they move into management, and he has revealed the advice that Arteta gave him, but Wilshere stressed the difference between playing and coaching and has asked to be judged on the new role, as he prepares to take to the dugout for the first time on Saturday in Luton’s League One clash at home to Mansfield.
“I don’t want people to think about my playing career,” the new Town boss said, adding: “There’s many things that I can use from my playing career, my experiences with different coaches, good, bad and try and make me the coach I am today.
“But the first week at Arsenal, when i was there with the 18s, I quickly realised that this is something that I’m going to have to get better at. Being a good player doesn’t make you a good coach as many things that are quite different and you have to understand that.
“You have to understand how the club works, internally. I want it to be clear that I didn’t want to step to a first team until I was ready to do that. I wanted to learn about it.
“Then I went to Norwich and that taught me so much. I was in the real world, I was competing for three points. It wasn’t always easy as well, we had a tough spell. So, yeah, of course, all them experiences [helped] and as a player as well, but now this is a new Jack Wilshere, a different Jack Wilshere, who is hungry to achieve great things and I’m so grateful to Gary [Sweet, Luton CEO] and the club for giving me that opportunity.”
He accepted that more eyes will be on him because of his history but insisted his coaching must stand on its own.
“Probably a few more eyes are watching, but I was clear with my journey. I played with Wayne Rooney, I played with Steven Gerrard, I played with Frank Lampard and they’ve they’ve all gone on their different journeys.
“But what I thought was important for me was actually stepping back and looking at their journeys and how they ended up. I’m sure that they’ll go on and have different experiences as well, but I was clear with my journey that I wanted to be competent and be completely comfortable with everything that I need to be, in terms of environment, in terms of how I see the game, in terms of how I talk to the players, how I manage the players.
“I’m happy with with the journey I’ve been on. People will judge ex-players as probably a little bit of the personality of the player, plus now the coach. I want to be clear that the player, I can use those experiences, but now I’m a coach and please judge me like that.”
Wilshere also outlined some of the practical differences he expects between playing and managing — particularly the need to help the whole Hatters group and to improve the players.
“The difference for me is the quality. There’s things in the Premier League that you’ll see in League One that you have to do. You have to compete, you have to run, you have to fight, you have to win duels. We’re in League One. My job is to try and improve the players so we can add that quality, as well as all the other stuff, all the intensity and everything. Then we can make them better as players to take the next step.”
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