Jack Wilshere has waited patiently for his managerial chance. Now he has the taste for it

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Jack Wilshere was smiling, shaking hands and slapping backs. There were a few hugs. The final whistle had just blown on Middlesbrough versus Norwich City and rarely has a 0-0 result been met with such pleasure.

Norwich are 14th in the Championship — nowhere-land — but a point had been won and another had been made. On his first afternoon as the interim head coach, Wilshere had stopped Norwich losing.

Some might not consider that the greatest achievement of Wilshere’s career, but you could not tell afterwards. “Honestly? I loved it,” were his first words in his first post-match press conference. It was a day, a week, of firsts for the 33-year-old former Arsenal and England midfielder.

It turns out that to emerge with a grin was one of his key targets. Wilshere was informed on Tuesday he would be replacing — temporarily for now — Johannes Hoff Thorup. That came after a 3-1 loss at Millwall on Monday, the Canaries’ sixth in their past eight games. A season that contained hope as recently as February had drifted into unsmiling dullness.

Wilshere, doing his UEFA Pro Licence, had joined Thorup’s staff in October before a thrilling 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough and has witnessed the slide from within. He will have private thoughts on that — as will Thorup.

But once the decision was made to dispense with the Dane, Wilshere was in the building and determined to change the record. This was literal — music has been a notable addition to the Norwich training ground this week. As Wilshere said on Friday in another first — his first pre-match press conference — in terms of what he wants to bring to the role, “the biggest thing is energy”.

He got that. The away dressing room at the Riverside Stadium is adjacent to the media room and you could hear New Order’s Blue Monday drumbeat pounding before kick-off. It would be an exaggeration to say Norwich came out dancing, but there was a determination apparent to end a run of three consecutive defeats. In each of those games Norwich were behind at half-time.

Middlesbrough, flat again, did produce a few first-half moments but Angus Gunn made a useful save, Callum Doyle produced a big block and an early Hayden Hackney shot had Wilshere down on his haunches hoping for the best. After 45 minutes, 0-0 it was.

After the interval, Wilshere made changes. They kept Norwich competitive and Josh Sargent hit the post on one of several breakaways. Boro’s keeper Mark Travers had to be sharp.

As the home side pressed for a win, Norwich stayed resilient. A first away clean sheet since February 1 was secured.

“I said to the players before the game that you have to make sure you stay in games,” Wilshere said. “Too many times this season we’ve conceded one, then another and then you’re chasing games. It becomes a game that doesn’t suit us.

“I think it’s interesting the way we talk about defending. When you’re a defender you love defending. If you’re not a defender, you have to create what I call a love for defending. They made a big step in that today.”

Wilshere, the staff and players took a few more, walking over to salute the travelling fans after the handshakes and hugs. Wilshere’s father Andy was among them, though the coach could not pick him out.

But they were due to meet as Wilshere was not boarding the team bus back to Norfolk; he is running the London Marathon on Sunday morning.

“My Dad came to the game today and he can take me straight home and I can rest a bit,” said Wilshere. “I can watch the game back in the car, then get ready for tomorrow.” He is running for the British Heart Foundation, his daughter Siena having had to undergo heart surgery.

His first Saturday morning as a head coach had involved a 3km run to keep the rhythm. There was a team meeting, a first starting XI selected — four changes made — lunch and a first team talk. How was it all?

“Honestly? I loved it. I am really fortunate to have the support of everyone and I felt that all week. There was a real togetherness today and, yeah, I was the one standing at the front, but it’s been a week where we’ve all come together.”

What was behind the changes?

“A little bit tactically, but the main focus was the same — energy, hunger, desire, fight, win your duels. The basics a footballer needs.

“The way the game is today, the intensity, the physical load, the cognitive load, you have to make subs, make changes, they have to be ready and they helped the team get a point.”

Initially Wilshere said he did nothing special for his first senior pre-match team talk (he coached Arsenal’s under-18s previously), but then he corrected himself. “Actually I did do something (different),” he said. “Pete Dye, the kitman, he gave the last speech before the players went out.

“When you talk about unity, this club is full of good people and someone like Pete, he really cares. This is his life. That was important for the players to hear that. It worked. From where we’ve come from this week, we needed a bit of inspiration and Pete gave us that.”

So this was not a day when Wilshere questioned the wisdom of the mad profession of football management?

“My ambition is to be a head coach,” he said. “I didn’t want to take a step until I was ready to impact at this level and it’s taken two-and-a-half years. I can still improve and I’m still hungry to get better. But I feel like I’m ready.”

He was still smiling as he left.

As Wilshere and his players greeted the Norwich fans, across the Riverside pitch, Michael Carrick and his Middlesbrough squad were conducting a disconsolate lap of appreciation in a largely emptied stadium. Fleetingly, Carrick and Wilshere were England team-mates.

Michael Carrick’s hopes of leading Middlesbrough to the play-offs are hanging by a thread (Trevor Wilkinson/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

For Boro the season had come down to a sprint, not a marathon. Or as Carrick called it, “a two-game shootout”. When Coventry City in sixth place lost at Luton Town in the lunchtime kick-off, Boro, in seventh, knew a home win would lift them above Coventry, the team they travel to face on the final day of the league season next Saturday.

Beating Norwich would make that a much more comfortable trip. But as the game petered out towards its inevitable goalless end and news of victories for Millwall and Blackburn Rovers filtered in, Boro’s possible sixth spot had become the reality of ninth.

“We couldn’t find that spark,” Carrick said. “It’s one of those days today.” Boro’s fanbase will retort that there has been more than one of those lately.

When Boro drew that game 3-3 at Norwich in October, with Wilshere in attendance, they had just beaten Sheffield United at the Riverside and were about to score four at QPR, five at home to Luton and six at Oxford United. They were fifth, five points off top and full of confidence. They also had Emmanuel Latte Lath, who got a hat-trick at Oxford, and a buzz.

But Boro sold Latte Lath to Atlanta United in MLS at the start of February and immediately lost the next three. It was an understandable business decision and the player wanted to go, but there are consequences.

Here they finished with centre-half Dael Fry up front trying to disrupt Wilshere’s newly-resolute Norwich defence. Carrick shook his head.

Middlesbrough had not lost the match, but they lost a chance. They have taken four points from the past five games.

And so as Wilshere smiled, he saw in Carrick’s grimace another face of football management.

(Top photo: Trevor Wilkinson/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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