Football Daily - Jack Wilshere - The Football Interview

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

In this week’s edition of The Football Interview, Kelly Somers speaks to Luton Town manager Jack Wilshere. They speak about his earlier years at Arsenal and what made him want to start coaching. Plus his relationship with Mikel Arteta and how Jack's own children are on their footballing journey. Timecodes:02:45 Early years at Arsenal 05:50 Highlights 08:40 Start of coaching career 12:00 Relationship with Mikel Arteta 14:30 Jack's kids on their own football path

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a new movie on the inner workings of Facebook hits cinemas in October. The journalist who's reporting inspired the film tells us why Facebook stopped being cool and whether meta its parent company can reinvent itself. For more, listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your pods. The Football Interview on the Football Daily podcast. Well, he was the teenage sensation aged just 16 years old.

He went on to win two FA Cups with Arsenal and now he's back where it all began. No, not at Arsenal, but here at Luton Town as a manager. He's already won his first silverware in less than a year in charge. Welcome to the football interview, Jack Wilshire. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, 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 was, 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 all the leagues

and they worked their way back up. I was then fortunate enough to come back when Nathan Jones was here. I'd done a pre-season here actually and yeah I did in 2021 and I felt I felt the energy of this place. They actually invited me to stay but I couldn't I couldn't because 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 and need direction and I think I had really strong beliefs on that I

think probably you know when you're 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 yeah I learned 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 and 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, I think, well, saying that, so I came here at seven, stayed here till nine, 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 nine 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 you coming through at the same time you think back to Henry Lansbury also sticks out there was like a generation of you that were being talked up at such a young age yeah Henry played here as well yeah it was and you know I was fortunate I mean to to get the the facilities that Arsenal had at a young age to get the coaching but probably most important Lee the pathway. And, you know, I remember 12 years old watching Arsenal's first team and Seth Fabragas playing in the team. So that gave everyone, Henry, me, and 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 Arsend 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 Arsend 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 on and give that to other players. And me, Cess, Aaron, Robin, Van Persi's gone on to coach. Yeah, of course. Yeah, and also Arsend'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 to 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, but maybe footballers don't always do in terms of the smoking and the drinking. How do you reflect on that now? Yeah, I made mistakes. I made mistakes.

And I always say, and this is my way of developing players, but it's probably the way that you develop people as well is players experiencing things. before you explain it to them. So I can explain to a player, let's say a young player in under 21, coming into first team football, that yeah, it's going to be really hard, you're going to 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 them going through it is much more powerful. And it's the same with life as well. So yeah, I reflect on, yes, I made mistakes, but I also reflect on that I had a manager, that, 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, um, Arsena was always, um, that the same way as, as, as I was in thinking that, yeah, 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, there's things they can't do, but also given 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, the biggest, you know, and you did you? I think the biggest. This 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 Arsenne. Like he obviously had real success early on in his career at Arsenal. And then, yeah, went for a period where they moved stadiums and success looked different, but ultimately we needed to win trophies. And I remember I feel of a big responsibility to deliver that for him.

And yeah, we did. And there was also players in there, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey. who we've been together for a few years. And yeah, I went from winning the Youth 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'd think it would.

No, it does. It does, of course it does because, you know, there were players that I'd watch and idolise, Niesta, Messi, Javi, and being compared to. Yeah, Buscettes, you know, in the tunnel and there was this aura about them. And then PEP walked through and, yeah, it was, I remember in that moment, we're 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 went on to win. But it still hurts me because we lost the away leg. Such a manager, I can tell kind of everything you're saying. Was that peak Jack Wilshire that season? Was that the best football you played?

Probably, unfortunately, probably yes. Don't get me wrong. there was still times throughout my career where 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 yeah how frustrating were the injuries I know it sounds like such an obvious question but it obviously was such a big part of your journey no they were they were really frustrating at the time I look back on them now probably with not the same frustration but

because I generally love this, what I'm doing now. And probably if I didn't have them injuries, I'm 34 now, I 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 I'm fortunate to start my journey early. You know, players that I played with Henderson well bit, like 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 an opportunity to start this journey early. 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 licence quite early in my career and enjoyed, enjoyed it, enjoyed the coaching side of it, but was really focused on my playing career. And then I went to Bournemouth and Steve Fletcher. Yeah, I know him.

Fletch, big Fletch was on... Well, love that he's been mentioned in this. Yeah, it was on his A licence. And it intrigued me that when he was doing it, there was was a guy called Steve Geinan from the FA who would come in and support him. And I'd just like ask him a few questions and then he started 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 licence, I was without a club. And Arsenal, Mikkel, it was actually Eddie who called me and said,

oh, do you want to come back and continue your A licence with the 18s but also trained with the first team to keep yourself fit for whatever's next. And of course I took it. And then yeah, so then I would train with the first team in the morning and I got to saw Mikkel and how he coached and the influence he was having and that was something different that I'd ever seen. Eddie was quite similar but Mikhail was even more intense and even more about teaching players and yeah it really intrigued me and I was obviously I've got a good relationship with Mikkel so I would ask him questions about why he's doing certain things and yeah it 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 sat with the 18s in the afternoon and yeah it wasn't it was something as well that I wasn't you know I'm open but I wasn't that good at it you know I had to learn it I had to you weren't that good at coach you I had to get I felt uncomfortable at times um what made it it feel uncomfortable I don't know just maybe because you've never done it like and maybe because as well I had a really clear way of how I saw it and I was influenced by Mikkel um but then I had to learn how to teach I had to learn how to get that across and and how to plan a session and how to get the outcomes of a session that you wanted.

Yeah, and then when I got the 18th job, I felt like I was really comfortable with that stuff, but then actually leading a group of staff and doing PDRs 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 Mikkel help you with? Is there anything that kind of stands out that he said to you or perhaps good with you? Yeah, probably with understanding 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, I was quite good at that, understanding what a 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 Mikkel really, really made that clear to me. 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. There 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 Mikkel still. Do you? Yeah. Yeah, Mikhail had a big influence on me. 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,

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 Mikkel, such a pride, such a buzz to see what they did last season and what they're building now. Yeah, and that's the thing. I think that maybe people are aware and do expect Arsenal and how to push on, but I see, and I know Mikhail is a person and how hungry it is, this is the first step for them.

I think probably if Mikael'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 for 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 coached them. Yeah, so really happy for them because they work really hard to get there and they deserve all of it. Max Dalman is pretty special. Yeah, he's a good player.

He's a good player. He played for my 18s team when he was 13. And yeah, he... That says it all really, didn't it? Yeah, even, you know, I remember calling my dad, because I played for the 18s when I was 14. So, yeah, I was like, was 13, too young. And in the first game, we could clearly see that it was ready for it.

And I remember calling my dad and saying, like, you need to come watch his kid, like, and yeah, my dad did. And my dad's very biased, as you could imagine. But even he said, yeah, he's better than you. I wanted to ask you about your kids as well because obviously you've got two older kids, too slightly younger kids, haven't you? And your oldest son is he playing here at Luton now?

Yeah, he is he signed for Luton now. How's that for him and you? Yeah, it's amazing for me. I'm really, really proud of him for doing it. And I'll tell you why, because it's not that easy. It's not that easy when you're 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, oh, 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 he can't come straight away because the manager's come, like, your son's come in. 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 at 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's got it, as I said, my youngest girl's got it. She loves it.

So, yeah, I'm a busy man. to make this equal, your daughter as well, she's the youngest. Yeah, yeah, she's eight years old and she gets better all the time. Like she, so like you said, I got too older and too younger. So my youngest girl's eight and my youngest boy is six and they're really close and my youngest boy loves it and he's like a proper boy who wants to tackle and wants a kick, so she gets to experience all of that and it's, yeah, they go everywhere together and like this summer they've been at a football camp and she's just got better

and better the whole time. What kind of player is she? She's technical. She's a technical person. player. But again, generally, her love for the game, she loves Luton, she loves football, she loved the World Cup. Future Lioness. Yeah, potentially. That's exciting, isn't it? And also, her story is even more remarkable, isn't it? 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. It's actually quite common. They actually missed it, but she had a hole in the 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 thing then 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? How tough was that for you? Because that must have been a, 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 a 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

actually use it here with about process you know I think anything you do in in football it has to be a reason and process to get somewhere and you know I was 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've done and but it was tough it's going to be even more amazing when she plays for England yeah and she's got that backstory or cypress or cypress and I also wanted to ask you about your other son because and obviously you're immensely proud and your kids have done so well was Archie that when I read somewhere where I think it might have been 2015, 2016 where he was having a really tough time as well and I'm not trying to make this a sob story about all your kids but it's just to maybe show I have 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 realize sometimes what footballers and football managers are going through off the pitch so if you can kind of elaborate what's happened to Archie that was tough that was tough it wasn't it wasn't open heart surgery but of course he's my first my first born um Yeah, he had epilepsy. So, yeah, again, like you're put into the situation.

I remember I was at home. I had a call from the school saying there's an ambulance here. Archie's fainted or something. And he was only four. Yeah, so that was a complete, like, I remember just jumping in the car. I can't remember how I got to the school. Where were you when you got the call? I was at home in Arbondon. Yeah. And, yeah, I drove to the school. By that point he'd been taken to the hospital and the ambulance.

And there was, again, a period where we didn't know what's going on. There was heart scans. There was brain scans. Yeah, that was tough to deal with. But like I said, football was always the escape for me. And, yeah, he's, again, I know everyone's proud of their children. But that probably makes you even more prouder 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're actually living with 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 like my injuries, like I say, like all them things that happen to me probably wouldn't be 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. Summer holidays. They've been away for a while, enjoying Cyprus, actually. But yeah, we're good. Good. Well, that's the main thing. And I guess now we're in the intense period of the season. When we actually came to schedule this interview,

and I was speaking to the press officer, and we were looking at days of the week. He saw Wednesday's normally the day off, but Jack's in 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 that. 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? No, them days are gone. Them days are gone. You can't do that really when I guess you're a manager. That's probably something. No. Even when we won the virtue, you know, I remember we went to a hotel near Wembley after

and the players were all enjoying. And I had a beer and someone said to me, oh, do you want another beer? And I was like, we got a game Wednesday. Like, I need to start watching Northampton. So, yeah, it's tough. What would 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. You're going to, like a boxer, you'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 I'd sit down with the coaches and say, like, do we need to change something? Do we need to put two up top or whatever it was? And everything we've 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 a strong personality to do that, that's really important. And I go back to like those dark times in your playing career. If you'd have known you were going to be Luton manager at 34, you probably wouldn't have believed me if I said that. No, no. Even, you know, I was at Norwich and in the January, it was actually my birthday. January the 1st we played at Kenilworth Road yeah and I sat in the manager's room at Kenilworth Road with Rob Edwards 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 five live sports BBC women's football weekly the latest news insights and analysis from across the women's game game game same same serena vigman welcome to the moment are we are we including Dame in your title now. You know how much an honour that is? I'm Richard! You want to play in a way that they can show their skills, so that's what we're trying to do.

Win the World Cup. It's a dream. Listen. With the BBC Sounds app. Is Facebook Dying? I'm Tristan Redmond, hosted the Global Story podcast from the BBC. More than 15 years after the social network, a new movie on the inner workings of Facebook

hits cinemas in October. The journalist who's reporting inspired the film tells us why Facebook stopped being cool and whether meta its parent company can reinvent itself. For more, listen to The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your pods.