A livid Jack Wilshere had to be dragged away from his own side’s fans after his Luton team drew 1-1 with Burton Albion in League One on Saturday.
The former Arsenal and England midfielder took charge of the Hatters in October, replacing Matt Bloomfield, who was sacked after a slow start to the season on the back of a second relegation for the club in as many years.
It’s been a mixed time in charge for Wilshere so far in his first permanent managerial role, with the 34-year-old having coached at the likes of Norwich City and Arsenal on the back of his retirement.
Town are currently 10th in the league standings, having had high hopes of an immediate return to the Championship just two years on from their relegation from the Premier League.
Frustration has grown in the fan base, though, with supporters keen to see the club kick on in the back end of the season. A home draw with Burton, who are 20th in the standings, didn’t give any sign that’s close to happening, though, with Wilshere’s side picking up one draw and two defeats from their last three league games.
And, when frustrations were directed his way in the aftermath of Saturday’s game – including chants of the performance being ’embarrassing’ – a fuming Wilshere had to be pulled away from the home supporters by his own players in what was the lowest point of his reign so far.
WARNING: Strong language
Fan footage shared to social media showed large numbers of fans booing the team off after the draw, which leaves them six points off the play-off places in the third tier.
Plenty of anger appeared to be aimed at Wilshere in particular as he made his way towards the tunnel, and he soon stopped in his tracks to seemingly confront one area of the home section.
Despite one player’s best efforts to move his manager on, Wilshere appeared to exchange verbals with one fan, and scrunched up his face as he spoke.
More players then tried to usher him on, but Wilshere wasn’t done, and appeared to try and get around his players to continue the conversation, which only drew more anger from the supporters watching on.
Eventually, he walked down the tunnel to another chorus of boos from the home fans.
Since stepping into the Luton dugout, the former Arsenal man has taken charge of 27 games in total – winning 11, drawing six and losing 10.
His league record stands at eight wins from 22 games, with the same number of defeats and six draws.
The current situation is a far cry from earlier in the season when Wilshere had fans putting up banners welcoming him to the club and singing his name.
‘This is my first experience of being first-team manager,’ he told Daily Mail Sport in November. ‘And though I’ve got faith in my ability, you never know until you’re that guy sat there making decisions. To hear the fans sing my name as a coach was honestly one of the best things.’
Wilshere had his side on a positive run earlier in the season with four wins and a draw coming between mid-October and mid-November, but Luton now have just two wins in their last nine.
The Hatters boss said after Saturday’s game: ‘First of all, I understand their (the fans’) frustrations, I do. I’ve said that a lot, but right now we need them.
‘It’s not for a lack of the players trying, they’re giving everything every single day. We work really, really hard to try and win games, to try and make supporters happy.
‘I think you can see that the players are really lacking belief, they’re lacking confidence. It’s difficult then when in the first minute there’s booing, but right now, everyone needs to be together, everyone needs to stick together.
‘We have no right just to turn up and win games and expect that we can just do that as we can’t, you can clearly see that at the moment that is not the case.’
He had previously told fans to send anger his way instead of the players’ on the back of their defeat by Wigan last week.
Wilshere has been determined to forge a coaching career since injuries forced him to retire as a player in 2022 after a short spell in Denmark.
Arsenal helped him cut his teeth in their academy ranks and he led their Under-18s to the FA Youth Cup final before accepting a role on Johannes Hoff Thorup’s staff at Norwich. He took over as interim when Thorup was fired in April, taking charge of two matches.
Stevenage-born Wilshere started out in the academy ranks of Luton as a player 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 an established international in 2010-11 and went on to win 34 senior caps but his career was marred by a succession of injuries and he retired from playing at the age of 30.
