Luton Town manager Jack Wilshere says watching the League One play-offs without his team in the shake-up “hurt a lot” – but that preparations for a summer of change have already begun.
Town’s remarkable late-season surge saw them finish one point outside the top six after winning eight of their final 10 league matches.
But having watched the first leg fixtures, Wilshere admitted the pain of missing out still lingers as planning intensifies behind the scenes to hit the ground running with the same ruthlessness when the season starts in August.
“I miss it a lot,” the manager told the club’s YouTube channel, adding: “I watched the play-off games at the weekend and that hurt a lot because we wanted to be there and that can give you that drive as well to make sure that we’re in and around it next year.”
Wilshere added: “There’s so much that goes into that. Recruitment being a big part of that, but also there’s some things that we need to reflect on as coaches that we need to improve as coaches to try and help the team.
“We fell short and as proud as we are and as much progress as we made, we want to take that next step next year.
“The only way you do that is by trying to identify the things that we can improve as coaches.
“There are some things we need to recruit and different types of players, but there are some areas where we can improve the players and make sure they’re more prepared going into certain games next season.
“That’s started and yeah, that’s a process that I’m looking forward to.”
The club last week released its retained list with only Cohen Bramall, Zack Nelson and Jacob Brown set to part ways when their contracts expire in the summer.
Wilshere also confirmed discussions are ongoing with fan favourites Jordan Clark and Liam Walsh as Town attempt to keep hold of two of the key figures behind their turnaround.
He said: “We’re in discussions with certain players, with Clicker, with Walshie, because you know how important they were and how important they are to me and the way we want to play.
“But also how important they were to turning things around at this club.
“Especially when I think about Clicker and his relationship with everyone at the club, the fans, he’s an important part of what we want to do. Same with Walshie.”
Elijah Adebayo was the other player soon to be out of contract that the club last week said they are in discussions with.
In terms of new signings for when the transfer window opens on June 15, the Town boss said the club had already identified the type of character they now want at Kenilworth Road.
“One thing we done really well in January, the recruitment team and Gary [Sweet – CEO] and Moons [James Mooney – operations director], we identified really quickly what type of players we want here, what we want the culture to look like. We want hungry players that really want to be here and help the team,” Wilshere said.
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