Jack Wilshere - The Football Interview

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2:03today, season sees apply. The football interview on the football daily podcast. Well, he was the teenage sensation age just 16 years old. He went on to in two FA cups with Arsenal, and now he's back. We're all began, not at Arsenal, but here at Luton Town as a manager. He's already one of his first silverware, less than a year in charge. Welcome to the football interview. Jack Wilshire. Yeah, thank you. It's a bit of a full circle moment for me coming back here, amazing to win something after a tough couple of years for the club. But yeah, we're building, we're growing from that. We were close last year to the playoffs, we want to obviously take that next step now. Why was this the right job for you then? Was it as simple as you knew the club? A little bit, I think. As I said, I started here, so then when you start at a place, you always keep your eye on them and I understood their journey that they went down

3:03all the leagues and they worked their way back up. I was then fortunate enough to come back when Nathan Jones was here. I've done a preseason here, actually. Okay. Yeah, I did in 2021 and I felt the energy in this place. They actually invited me to stay, but I couldn't. I couldn't because of the energy and the intensity that Nathan Jones wanted. I was coming towards the end. So yeah, I understood that when I first walked in the door here, and actually when I first started speaking to the club about it, I could tell that was gone. I could tell that was gone and they needed an identity, I needed direction. And I think I had really strong beliefs on that. I think probably when you're first starting your coaching journey, you do have that. You do have that. You're strong, you know, you think you know everything and learn a lot along the way. But that was the main focus, was that? So what are you like then as a manager? My idea of it is that you have to work really, really hard and you have to, you know, I want to give the players clarity in every single moment. And to do that, you have to have clarity

4:05and even more and more. So I think the second thing is you have to have a big love for the game because it takes over your life, which I do. And then yeah, I think if you have that blend and then you try and make it enjoyable for the players, yeah, there'll be challenges along the way, but I think you're on the right path. So it did all start here, but was it always Arsenal for you as a player? Yeah, yeah, I think, well, saying that. So I came here at 7, stayed here till 9 and then Arsenal came in for me. And it was actually a really difficult decision. I mean, obviously when you look back now, it probably wouldn't seem like a difficult decision, but 9 years old, I was playing with my friends that I played with for years and then Arsenal came along and obviously in the end, I made the decision to go there. But yeah, it was actually a tough decision to leave it. So talk to me about those early memories of being Arsenal because it feels like us as football fans as a nation, we found out about you and the whole kind of, there was a few of

5:06you coming through at the same time, you think about the Henry Lans, but it also sticks out. There was like a generation of you that would be in talks up at such a young age. Yeah, Henry played here as well. Yeah, it wasn't, you know, I was fortunate, I mean, to get the facilities that Arsenal had at a young age, to get the coaching, but probably most importantly, the pathway. And, you know, I remember 12 years old watching Arsenal's first team and Cess Fabregas playing in the team. So that gave everyone Henry and me, all the others a belief that if you were good enough, you'd get the chance. So yeah, I was fortunate that we had a manager in Arsenal that really believed in young players and given them the opportunity. And, you know, I've been influenced by a lot of coaches, but probably the one that stands out is Arsenal. And it wasn't necessarily for the way he coached or how he was on the training pitch. It was more about how he made you feel. And yeah, I think that really players want to take that honor and give that to other players. And, you know, me, Cess, Aaron,

6:10rubbing that purse he's got on his coach. So yeah, and also Ascent's way was by teaching people the game. So you always felt like your knowledge of the game was getting better. It's clearly so important you to have this relationship with your players. And I feel like I can ask you this now because you are the manager leading these players. You mentioned the mistakes that you made at Arsenal. There were perhaps photos taken of you when you were younger doing things that maybe footballers don't always do in terms of smoking and the drinking. How do you reflect on that now? Yeah, I made mistakes. I made mistakes. And, you know, I always say, and this is my way of developing players, but it's probably the way that you develop people as well as players experiencing things before you explain it to them. So I can explain to a player, let's say a young player, and under 21, coming into first-eam football, yeah, it's going to be really hard. You have to do this, you're going to have to do this. It's a different type of game, but actually giving them the opportunity and then going through it is much more powerful. And it's the same with life as well.

7:12So yeah, I reflect on the yesterday mistakes, but also reflect on the manager. Yeah, he had high standards and he let me know that he was disappointed, but he also gave another chance. That was my next question. What was his reaction? Yeah, he was... Our same was always the same way as I was in thinking that, you know, players are going to make mistakes, but number one, you educate them. You let them know as well that there's a line and there's things they can't do, but also giving them another chance. I believe in that. And he did give you chances. And you went on to reward him, didn't you, in so many ways? When you look back, what are the highlights from playing? I think the biggest one is the Cup wins, the FA Cup. The FA Cup final in 2014. And I remember just feeling a big responsibility that everyone owes this to Asen. He obviously had real success early on in his career arsenal. And then, you know, went for a period where they moved stadiums and success looked different, but ultimately we needed to win trophies. And I remember having a big responsibility to

8:16deliver that for him. And yeah, we did. And there was also players in there, Curing Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, who we've been together for a few years. And yeah, I went from winning the Uf Cup with the club then to winning the actual FA Cup, and that was special. I did wonder if you were going to mention the Barcelona game. Everyone talks about the Barcelona game. I remember. Does it not mean as much to you as maybe we think it does? It does, of course it does, because, you know, there were players that I would watch and idolise in ESD or Messi. I've been compared to. Yeah, Busquets, you know, in the tunnel, and there was this aura about him. And Pep walked through and, you know, it was, it was, I remember that moment thinking, okay, now I've got that feeling, what they're feeling. The game started. We didn't touch the ball for 10 minutes. And then, yeah, there was a moment where I won the ball back and I sort of drove the team forward. And I remember just feeling the crowd lift and, yeah, the team got confidence from that. And we weren't on to win. But it still hurts me because we lost the away leg. It's such a manager, I can tell kind of everything you're saying. Was that Pete Jack Wilshire that season? Was that the best football you played?

9:18Probably, unfortunately, probably yes. Don't get me wrong. There was still times throughout my career. Well, I had a similar feeling in that game where you're kind of, you're in flow and things are happening around you and everything's going right for you. And there was other games like that. Probably not against the level of opposition. But probably for a consistent spell, probably, how frustrating were the injuries? I know it sounds like such an obvious question, but it obviously was such a big problem your journey. No, they were. They were really frustrating at the time. I look back on them now. Probably we've not the same frustration because I generally love this what I'm doing now. And I've probably, if I didn't have them injuries, 34 now, probably could still be playing and don't get me wrong. I love every minute of playing. But I also really, really love this. And I see it as unfortunate to start my journey early. You know, players that I played with Henderson well bit, they're all still playing. I'm sure that especially Henderson is going to go on to coaching. So, yeah, I feel fortunate that I've got

10:20an opportunity to start this journey early. At what point did you realise you needed to start thinking about life post-playing? Because as you said, you did retire early. So I've done my B-License quite early in my career and enjoyed it, enjoyed the coaching side of it, but was really focused on my playing career. And then I went to Bournemouth and I had a Steve Fletcher. Fletcher, big Fletcher. I love that he's mentioned, didn't he? Yeah, it was on his A-License. And it intrigued me that when he was doing it, there was a guy called Steve Gynon from the FAA who would come in and support him. And I'd just like, asking him a few questions and any size talking about the A-License and how you apply for it. So I started to think about that, obviously then applied for it and got on it. And then, yeah, towards the end of my A-License, I was without a club, an Arsenal, Michele. It was actually Edu who called me and said, I would you want to come back and continue your A-License with the A-Teen, but also train with the first team to keep yourself fit for whatever is next. And of course, I took it. And then,

11:22yeah, so then I would train with the first team in the morning and I got to saw Michele and how he coached and the influence he was having. And that was something different I'd ever seen. Edu was quite similar, but Michele was even more intense and even more about teaching players. Really intrigued me and I was obviously, I got good relationship with Michele. So I would ask him questions about why he's doing certain things. And just started to fall in love with it and how he started to prepare training sessions. And then I'd obviously get an opportunity to practice that with the A-Teen in the afternoon. And yeah, it was something as well that I wasn't, I'm open with, I wasn't that good at it. I had to learn it. So you weren't that good at coaching? Well, I felt uncomfortable at times. What made it feel uncomfortable? I don't know, just maybe because you've never done it. And maybe because as well, I had a really clear way of how I saw it and I was influenced by Michele. But then I had to learn how to teach, I had to learn how to get that across and how to plan a session and how to get the outcomes of the session that you wanted. Yeah, and then when I got the A-Teen's job, I felt like I was really

12:27comfortable with that stuff, but then actually leading a group of staff and doing PDFs with staff. And that stuff was all new and thankfully I really, really enjoyed it and loved it because you have to, like I said at the start, because it takes over everything. What kind of stuff did Michele help you with? Is there anything that kind of stands out that he said to you all probably? Yeah, probably we've understand in the game because you know, I played the game right and I played under some good coaches and they'd tell me to do something I'd do it. I was quite good at that understanding what coach wants and do it. But actually, I never probably dived into or understood why is he asking me to do that? What's it creating for other players? And Michele really, really made that clear to me and yeah, I was probably at a stage of my career and lucky enough to have a relationship where I could say, well, why do you want that and why do you want that? And he was open enough to share it with me. That must be pretty special for him now, seeing you in this role. You're like his little protégé, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, I speak to Michele still.

13:29Do you? Yeah, Michele had a big influence on me and yeah, I'm grateful for that time I got to spend with him and also when you see that and you're really convinced by something and then you go away from it and they continue on that journey and they then become successful. It gives me even more belief in that. And in terms of flipping it the other way, I was going to ask you about Arsenal later on in this but wow, it must have given you particularly as an Arsenal fan as someone that has that relationship with Michele, such pride, such a buzz to see what they did last season. They're building now. Yeah, and that's the thing. I think that maybe people are aware and do expect Arsenal now to push on but I see, I don't know Michele as a person and how hungry is, this is the first step for them. I think probably if Michele's honest he would say that they could have done it earlier and probably should have and you could see how much that then drove him on to be successful last season. Yeah, really happy

14:31for him, really happy for his staff because how committed they are and how much work they put in. But also the players, you know, Miles was in there, Max Dalman was in there. Of course you would have practiced them. Yeah, so really happy for them because they worked really hard to get there and they deserve all but. Max Dalman's pretty special. He's a good player. He played for my 18s team when he was 13 and yeah, I said it already, didn't it? Yeah, even I remember calling my dad because I played for the 18s when I was 14. So yeah, I was like, I was 13 to young and first in the first game we could clearly see that he was ready for it and I remember calling my dad and saying like, you need to come which is cute and my dad did and my dad's very biased as you could imagine but even he said yeah, and he's better than you. I wanted to ask you about your kids as well because obviously you've got two older kids, two slightly younger kids, haven't you? And your older kid, your oldest son is he playing here at Luton now? Yeah, he's his son for Luton now. How's that for him and you? Yeah, it's amazing for me. I'm really, really proud of him for

15:35doing it and I'll tell you why because it's not that easy. It's not that easy when you were the manager's son to... But also being Jack Wilshire's son as well. Yeah, yeah. But when I first came here, the head of recruitment for the academy said, we've been watching your boy for a while, like we want to get him in and I was like, yeah, we'll get him in but like he can't come straight away because the manager's got all your sons coming and he had to come on trial and earn his place here and yeah, really proud of him for that because it's not always easy and the biggest thing is like I said, right, the start is for me, my love of the game, that he's got that love of the game as well and yeah, my youngest boy has got it as I said, my youngest girl's got it, she loves it so yeah, I'm a busy man. And let's make this equal your daughter as well, she's a younger girl. Yeah, yeah, she's eight years old and she gets better all the time, like she, so like you said, I've got two older and two younger, so my youngest girl's eight and my youngest boy's six, so they're really close and my youngest boy loves it and he's like a proper boy who wants to tackle and wants to kick so she gets to experience all of that and it's yeah, they go everywhere

16:39together and like this summer they've been at a football camp and she's just got better and better the whole time. Kind of play with she. She's technical, she's a technical player, but again generally her love for the game, she loves Luton, she loves football, she loves the World Cup. Future Lioness. Yeah, potentially. That's exciting, isn't it? And also her story's even more remarkable, isn't it? Yeah. Because she's had a tough few years. Yeah, she has. Just to clarify what she did go through, she had heart surgery. Yeah, she had heart surgery, she, it's actually quite common out, she missed it, but she had a hole in her heart. Yeah, and then you find it a few years later on and the success before their five is much better, so it was actually quite like a big feeling to get it done. But yeah, that was obviously something as a parent, you know, like it's tough. How tough is that as a parent? Not tough, was that for you because that must have been it? Was that around the time you were retiring? Yeah, it was into my second year of coaching. That was tough. That was tough. And again, I was fortunate that I had something and I had

17:45a love for coaching because, you know, I went through some things, nothing, nothing that bad in my playing career, but football was always like the escape for anything. And this was the same, like there was a period where we found out it was like a month, I think, where we found out we need to get done to when we got it done, which was obviously tough. And yeah, it's probably the uncertainty that any parent or any person going through is that's probably the hardest thing to deal with. But yeah, it taught me a lot, it taught me a lot, and you know, sometimes that's you use it here with about process, you know, I think anything you do in football, there has to be a reason process to get somewhere. And, you know, I was put into a position where I just had to listen to people and listen to surgeons and trust them and trust their process and yeah, amazing what they done and, but it was tough. It's going to be even more amazing when you play Springdon. Yeah, and she's got that backstory, yeah. Or cypress, yeah. I also want to ask you about your other son because, and obviously you're immensely proud and your kids have done so well, was it actually

18:47that when I read somewhere where I think I've been 2015, 2016 where he was having a really tough time as well, and I'm not trying to make this a substrate about all your kids, but it's just a maybe show. You've done your research. I have done my research, thank you very much. I kind of just want to show that maybe there's more, we don't realise sometimes what football and football managers are going through off the pitch. So if you can kind of elaborate what's happened to you. Yeah, that was tough. It wasn't open heart surgery, but of course, he's my first born. He had epilepsy. So, yeah, again, like you're putting to the situation, I remember I was at home, I had a call from the school saying there's an ambulance here, Archie's fainted, and he was only four. Yes, so that was a complete like I remember just jumping in the car, I remember how I got to the school. Well, anyway, were you when you got the call? I was at home in my home, yeah. And yeah, I drove to the school, by that point, you'd been taken to the hospital in the ambulance, and there was again a period where we didn't know what was going on, there was heart scans, there was brain scans, yeah, and I was

19:52tough to deal with, but like I said, football was always the escape for me, and yeah, again, I know everyone's proud of their children, but that probably makes you even more proud of that. He was able to come through that, and yeah, we found out it was epilepsy at the time. I knew nothing about epilepsy, I didn't know what you'd obviously heard about it, and then when you actually live in someone who has it, it's different, and it changes your life, and yeah, it teaches you things, and I think all these experiences that you go through in life, they're there for a reason, and it's not my injuries, like I say, like all them things happen to me, probably wouldn't be the the man I am and able to do what I do now if I didn't go through them. And now sitting here, everyone's happy, everyone's healthy. Yes, yeah, yeah, they are. Some of the holidays, they've been away for a while, enjoying Cypress actually, but yeah, we're good. Good, well that's that's the main thing, and I guess now we're in the intense period of the season,

20:55when we actually came to schedule this interview, and I was speaking to the press officer, and we were looking at days of the week, so Wednesday's normally the day off, but Jackson, anyway, does that tell us a lot about your mentality? Are you able to escape? Do you escape? I think I need to be better at it. He's saying no in the corner, by the way. Yeah, I think I need to be better at that. So you're not the party boy that maybe one's bad. You can't do that really when I guess you're a manager, that's probably some. No, even when we won the Virtue, you know, I remember we went to a hotel near Wembley after, and the players were already enjoying, and I had a beer, and someone said to me, I'd do another beer, and I was like, we got a game Wednesday, like, I need to start watching North Hampton. So yeah, it's tough. What was little Jack, or even Jack that maybe was in some dark moments with injuries during his playing career, kind of make of all this now? What would you like to say to him because I guess this is proof, isn't it, that everything's all right in the end? Yeah, I think keep going. I think that is so important, like, you're going to, like a box,

21:58you're going to get punched in the face, you're going to face adversity, you're going to face tough times, but keep going and keep believing in what you believe in. There was times last season where it was tough, and you know, I'd sit down with the coaches and say like, what do we need to change something, do we need to put two up top, or whatever it was, and everything we done always fell back to what I believed in. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm always right, or we're always going to be right, but I think having the strong personality to do that, that's really important. And I go back to, like, those dark times in your playing career, if you know you're going to be Luther manager at 34, you probably wouldn't have believed me if I said that. No, even, you know, I was at knowledge, and in the January, it was like to my birthday, January the 1st, we played at Kenowafroad, yeah, and I sat in the manager's room at Kenowafroad, with Robert Woods, with one of his coaches, Richie, and we had a really good chat. Jack, thank you so much for talking to us, so we kept you talking as well, so thank you very much.

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