Wilshere ready for Savage’s cup test

POINT TO PROVE: Luton boss Jack Wilshere

JACK Wilshere won two FA Cups as an Arsenal player – the only silverware of a stellar career agonisingly cut short by injury.

Now, as the new Luton Town boss prepares to make his managerial bow in the famous competition when Forest Green Rovers visit Kenilworth Road next month, he is using the frustration of his enforced retirement as motivation to succeed in the dugout.

“Naturally you sit there and there are times when you think about what could have been,” the 33-year-old, who was named as Matt Bloomfield’s successor at Kenilworth Road on Monday, told our sister paper The FLP.

“I played in Soccer Aid a couple of times. And when you run out at Old Trafford and there’s 70,000 people there, you do have a little moment where you go ‘Wow, this is unbelievable’.

“But my body just couldn’t do what I wanted it to do anymore. That’s partly why I jumped straight into coaching – to fill that void and eradicate the fear I’d miss playing.

“And maybe that’s why I’m so hungry and passionate and driven to still achieve big things in the game.”

Wilshere played in the 2014 World Cup for England and made 182 Premier League appearances for Arsenal, Bournemouth and West Ham United before injury forced him to hang up his boots in 2022 following a brief spell at Danish Superliga club Aarhus.

His two FA Cup successes came for Arsenal in successive years, in 2013-14 and 2014-15, when the Gunners beat Hull City and Aston Villa and respectively under legendary manager Arsene Wenger.

“Listen, I had a good career and we won some things,” Wilshere reflected.

“I played for England and I loved those moments. Of course I did. But I feel like I still have so much more to give to the game.

“That’s why I’m so driven to achieve good things at Luton.”