Wilshere's Luton mould fresh 'identity'

Jack Wilshere says his Luton Town side are moulding a new "identity" as he prepares for his first full season in charge of the Hatters.

Wilshere joined the League One side in October and has helped stabilise the club after back-to-back relegations, leading them to within a point of the play-offs following an end-of-season run of six wins in seven.

He also led the side to a Wembley final as they lifted the EFL Trophy.

"You come in with a certain idea of how you see the game, but you have to adapt to what you have," said Wilshere.

The 34-year-old was in Luton's centre of excellence before joining Arsenal at the age of nine.

"I understand what Luton's about a little bit," Wilshere told BBC Look East.

"But when we first walked in, we didn't feel it. That was a confidence thing as well. I felt they needed a clear way of playing, but to keep a hold of the things that took Luton Town on a journey to the Premier League.

"Especially at home in front of our fans, we want our fans to look at the team and identify with the behaviours of the team that went on that successful journey while having a different way of playing. That's something you have to live and breathe.

"That's my biggest lesson from management, there's no way of faking it. You have to be authentic, you have to see the behaviours you talk about around the environment in the team."

As a player Wilshere was capped 34 times by England and twice won the FA Cup with Arsenal, but said his learning curve at Luton had been steep.

"I'm the first one to look in my mirror. I think that's really important because the players want to see that.

"They want to see humility. I talk about humility with the players all the time, being humble, being confident. They want to see that in me as well."

The Hatters will be among the pre-season favourites for promotion to the Championship and count Kasey Palmer - who enjoyed a productive loan spell at Kenilworth Road last season - among their summer recruits.

"Everyone knows our ambition." Wilshere added. "It's to improve on last year. If we improve our points tally, we'll be closer to that [promotion].

"There are things we were short on last year and promoted teams can't be short on those things."