Jack Wilshere inspired a rip-roaring Luton Town turnaround at the weekend with a passionate half-time speech – leaving fans convinced he will become a ‘top manager’.
The League One club have shared dressing room footage from their trip to Reading on Saturday, which saw the Hatters recover from 3-1 down to win 4-3.
Jack Marriott had given Reading their lead with a hat-trick but Luton were level within seven minutes of the restart and Gideon Kodua netted a 97th-minute winner.
Wilshere is starting his first full season in charge of Luton, who he led to seventh in the third tier last campaign after taking over in October.
Their opening-day victory puts them fourth in the table and promotion will again be the aim – even with big fish such as Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday dropping down.
‘I could stand here and show you some clips, but the truth is boys, I must be going f****** crazy,’ Wilshere began in his speech.
Jack Wilshere’s half-time team talk helped inspire Luton’s comeback win against Reading
Wilshere is targeting promotion in his second season in charge of the League One club
‘I spent six f****** weeks telling you we drop points against counter-attacking teams. What happens on day one? We f****** concede three goals, three goals to give them a hat-trick, a f****** hat-trick lads.’
The former Arsenal and England midfielder continued: ‘Come on, please, we can f****** do what we want, but if we ain’t f****** there in duels, if we don’t land on second balls, it doesn’t matter. Be clean, please, be clean.
‘We do passing drill after passing drills where we go bang, bang, opposite side. It’s for now! It’s for now, lads. This is where it matters.
‘Lads, it’s still there for us. We can score two in f****** ten minutes and f****** kill them. But come on boys, let’s be f****** men about it. Let’s go.’
The clip of his talk went viral on social media and attracted plenty of comments from impressed viewers.
‘I’m now willing to run through a brick wall for Jack Wilshere, fair play,’ said one on X.
‘He’s going to be a top manager,’ said another.
‘Loads of potential as a coach,’ one commented.
Another quipped: ‘Just put a hat on and started running through brick walls shouting viva la Wilshere. What a video.’
Wilshere won the EFL Trophy with Luton last season but knows that his priority is getting them back to the Championship.
He replaced Matt Bloomfield with the club in 11th last season but despite him winning more than half of his games in charge, they finished a point outside the play-offs.
Wilshere will be pleased to see some of his pre-season signings paying off. After Jake Richards opened the scoring six minutes in against Reading, new man Kasey Palmer struck twice in the second half before fellow arrival Kodua found the winner.
His ultimate goal is to take the Bedfordshire club back to the Premier League.
Ahead of the season, he told BBC Look East: ‘I understand what Luton’s about a little bit. But when we first walked in, we didn’t feel it.
‘That was a confidence thing as well. I felt they needed a clear way of playing, but to keep a hold of the things that took Luton Town on a journey to the Premier League.
‘Especially at home in front of our fans, we want our fans to look at the team and identify with the behaviours of the team that went on that successful journey while having a different way of playing. That’s something you have to live and breathe.
Wilshere won the EFL Trophy in his first season in charge of the Hatters
‘That’s my biggest lesson from management, there’s no way of faking it. You have to be authentic, you have to see the behaviours you talk about around the environment in the team.
‘I’m the first one to look in my mirror. I think that’s really important because the players want to see that.
‘They want to see humility. I talk about humility with the players all the time, being humble, being confident. They want to see that in me as well.
‘Everyone knows our ambition. It’s to improve on last year. If we improve our points tally, we’ll be closer to that [promotion].
‘There are things we were short on last year and promoted teams can’t be short on those things.’
Stevenage-born Wilshere started out in the academy ranks of Luton but he joined Arsenal at the age of nine and became one of their home grown stars when he burst into the first team at the age of 16 and made his England debut at 18.
He became established in 2010-11 and went on to win 34 senior caps but his career was marred by a succession of injuries and he retired as a player at the age of 30.
