Wilshere on Arteta’s influence and mentoring Luton’s young players

Luton Town manager Jack Wilshere discussed learning from Mikel Arteta and his work with young players in an interview with Kelly Somers for the seventh episode of The Football Interview, broadcast on BBC One at 12:45 BST on Saturday, 3 October and available on BBC iPlayer, BBC Football YouTube and the BBC Sport website and app.

Wilshere described his playing career from his earliest days at Luton—he joined the club aged seven—through trophy success at Arsenal and international appearances. He won the FA Cup with Arsenal in 2014 and 2015, played 182 Premier League matches and was capped 34 times by England, featuring at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the European Championship in France in 2016. Injuries forced him to retire at 30, a decision he said he has no regrets about: "I loved it [my career], I'm really proud," he said. "I got to play for my country and represent them at two major tournaments. OK, they didn't go the way we wanted them to, but I got to do it. "I scored for my country, I played for the club I loved growing up, so pride is the biggest thing."

Wilshere is approaching his first full year in senior management at Luton; on 13 October it will be one year since he took charge, having previously been interim manager at Norwich City for a two-game spell at the end of the previous season. He has already won silverware with the Hatters, leading them to the EFL Trophy by beating Stockport County 3-1 at Wembley in April in front of a crowd of nearly 50,000. Reflecting on the early stages of his managerial career he said: "I'm 34 now and probably could still be playing," and added, "I'm really grateful to the club and the board for giving me that opportunity because they didn't need to. I was a young coach wanting to make my first step into the game."

Wilshere recounted how he moved straight into coaching at Arsenal after retiring, saying: "I hear stories about people struggling in retirement and I retired on a Monday, and I was in with the [under] 18s on a Tuesday." He described the moment he realised coaching required full commitment: "When I first went and walked through the door to coaching, I realised this is going to take over my life, and I need to commit myself to this if I want to improve."

He credited Mikel Arteta with helping him understand coaching methods, noting Arteta's wider success at Arsenal: "I got to see Mikel and how he coached and the influence he was having," said Wilshere, after Arteta guided the Gunners to the Premier League title in 2025-26, their first time as English champions in 22 years. Wilshere described asking Arteta questions about session design and preparation: "I would ask him questions, why he's doing certain things, and I started to fall in love with it and how he started to prepare training sessions. "I'd get an opportunity to practice that with the 18s in the afternoon and it was something I wasn't that good at, and I felt uncomfortable at times. "I was influenced by Mikel, but then I had to learn how to teach. I had to learn how to get that across, how to plan a session and how to get the outcomes that you wanted. "I played under some good coaches and was quite good at understanding what a coach wants, but I never dived into 'why is he asking me to do that?' Mikel really made that clear and I was lucky enough to have a relationship where I could say, 'well, why do you want that?' And he was open enough to share it with me."

During his time at Arsenal's academy Wilshere worked with players who later reached the first team, including Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman. He recalled spotting Dowman early: "Max played for my 18s team when he was 13," and added, "I remember calling my dad because I played for the 18s when I was 14. I was like, 'was 13 too young?' "In the first game we could clearly see that he was ready for it. And I remember calling my dad and saying, 'you need to come watch this kid'. My dad did, and my dad's very biased, as you could imagine. But even he said, 'he's better than you'."

Wilshere said his own mistakes as a player inform how he manages young professionals, citing early negative attention over drinking and smoking and the response from former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. He said: "Yes, I made mistakes, but I also reflect on that," and outlined his approach to coaching young players: "You educate them, you let them know there's a line and there's things they can't do. But also give them another chance. I believe in that." He pointed to a viral half-time team talk from the opening day of the season when Luton trailed Reading 3-1 before recovering to win 4-3 as an example of his man-management. "You have to build that relationship with the players," said Wilshere. "Players also want to have high standards. They want to be held accountable. Ever since day one, they've been all-in with what we've been trying to do. "My idea is you have to work really, really hard. I want to give the players clarity in every single moment. I'd like to think I'm really hard-working, you have to be. "You have to have a big love for the game because it takes over your life, which I do. Then if you have that blend and try and make it enjoyable for the players, there will be challenges along the way, but you're on the right path."

Wilshere said he is aiming to guide Luton to promotion to the Championship this season.