Opinion: Deja Vu… All Over Again
Kev Lennon dives into a calamitous five months for Luton Town following the dismissal of Matt Bloomfield and the search for a new manager…again.
It was only five months ago I wrote my last note following our highly disappointing relegation from the Championship after a disaster of a season on and off the field. Since then, we have seen the Chairman and CEO give us their apologies, admit errors have been made and say they have learned from these while important changes were being made to the recruitment and commercial/ retail teams.
We were told that our extensive summer transfer dealings, which saw many much needed outgoings of highly-paid players that had failed to deliver, was based on bringing in “strength in depth” to “sharpen us for the battles ahead”, containing “the kind of character to stand up to the rigours of the division…people who fit the Luton way - hard-working, ambitious, ready to put the team first and get us up off our seats making us proud to be a Luton fan”. All words from our CEO.
Well stone me dead. After 11 games, with as many defeats as wins and someone who has both home and away season tickets, I’m struggling to find more than one or two of our 14 signings that fall into that character. I can hardly recall a player getting me off my seat other than Shayden Morris’ cameo vs. Division-4 Barnet. And let’s not forget we are a club with the highest budget in the league by a country mile and still have some players who were plying their way in the top echelon of English football two seasons ago.
Loyal Luton Supporters Club as well as many of the fans already made it clear their views on our manager and with full justification Bloomfield was finally sacked and not before time on Monday morning.
Defeat at Stevenage was the final nail in the coffin for Matt Bloomfield.
His short success at Wycombe was based on a set formula that you would have thought our summer recruitment would be based around, but the end result couldn’t be further away. Our first PSF saw us start against Boreham Wood in his favoured formation but at half-time that was abandoned for five at the back and the back-4 was not seen again at the start of a game until our 9th league fixture of the season at home to a poor Doncaster team.
He blamed injuries but come on, have we not learned anything. Despite an injury list over the last two years longer than a queue into L&D A&E we still insist on signing players already injured or having no pre-season behind them.
Personally, I felt both the club and task were simply too big for him and his skillset. The words out of his mouth couldn’t be trusted, often telling the press what they wanted to hear. His tactics bemused most fans, always putting square pegs in round holes, constantly changing his team from game to game, an inability to be proactive and being too slow at reacting to in-game situations. His post-match interviews highlighted the lack of a hard streak needed in the situations we found ourselves in. He loves quoting data stats but quite frankly nearly every fan couldn’t give two hoots about ‘in-box insertions’, xG, etc. etc. Stop trying to create a smokescreen as there are only two stats that really matter: goals scored and goals conceded.
In life I’m generally a very reasoned and upbeat person (this comes with age and maturity!!) so despite the disappointing start to the season I’ve tried to remain positive and was still looking at a glass half full especially after the Burton and Barnet games. But then the abysmal performance at Lincoln and hard slog against Plymouth was then explained by a lack of confidence in the group - this didn’t go down well for me. Honestly, if this happens after only two defeats then it hardly correlates with the characters we were being told were being brought into the club. The last week has seen a dire 70-mins against Blackpool (a team so lacking confidence and results they sacked their manager days after) and a capitulation against Stevenage after first half tactics and excuses that you wouldn’t expect in an u10’s kids match. What has really stood out too is the lack of leaders we have across the group. So much for our brand new sparkling recruitment approach then…
Photo Credit: George Dunn/Luton Town FC
Even my 12 y/o stepson will regularly highlight problems: the defence often not working as a unit; too much sideways/ back ways passing; lack of intensity in our play; players not coming to meet the ball; no creation in the middle of the pitch; poor quality from the flanks; lack of bodies attacking balls into the box and above all a real lack of a true goal scoring threat - watch our pre-match warm-ups and you’ll know you’re in danger if sat behind or to the side of the goal. After 11 league games how many games has the opposition goalie had to make more than a couple of routine saves? If a 12 year-old can see all this then what are the army of coaches and people on their iPads on the bench doing on matchdays…
Don’t give us excuses about needing time to gel. The average amount of signings for teams in both L1 & L2 is in double figures so this is hardly a unique situation and let’s not forget most have been here now for three months or longer. As I’ve said before; excuses are for losers while winners find solutions.
Quite simply what was being delivered was nowhere near good enough and there was very little to get enthusiastic or optimistic about. Thankfully, the Board saw sense and have now got rid so we can hopefully start looking at the rest of the season in a more favourable light.
The season is still young and to be quite frank the quality in this league, without a single standout team, is very poor so there is plenty of time to rescue it. Hard decisions need to be made to find the best person to replace Bloomfield but do we have trust in the same recruitment process that only saw one person (MB) officially interviewed last time round??
Let’s hope this is one very costly lesson they have learned from and a thorough process can root out a new manager who can deal with our issues head-on. For me, this person cannot be a rookie but someone with a strong character that inspires everyone connected with the club and will be at the forefront of uniting everyone together on the promotion charge we all want. Despite doubts from many I still believe that there is enough quality in the squad with the right coach and January transfer window to make this a successful season. Whatever happens we certainly can’t afford to be paying our current wage bill in League One next season with the big drop of c.£40m in parachute payments next season and would certainly challenge 2020’s core strategy of operating the club within its means.
Off the pitch we now have a new Chief Revenue Officer. I’m not sure what business school he went to but I’m glad I never went there. Despite now being in the third tier of football our commercial offerings are still the same price as when we were in the Premier League and also last season in the Championship when packages were regularly not sold. Looking at a recent matchday programme we had 13 players/ coach without a single sponsor with most of the others only having one of two kits sponsored. Is it any surprise a far inferior product doesn’t sell at the price of £1,200 (£1,000 plus VAT). Matches are now going unsponsored and potential sponsors continue being disenfranchised (several reaching out to me following my last note). I won’t even start on our retail offering but on both sides if you don’t understand your end-customer, then how will you sell to them??
Much of the club shop seems unchanged since the pre-Premier League days.
Gary Sweet will try to deflect all the above issues with the progress being made at Power Court. We welcome spades going in the ground, especially after the many prolonged delays which could well be another story for another day. We also appreciate the need for a new fully-unencumbered stadium if we are to compete financially at the top of the Championship and hopefully higher. With social housing now being excluded from the attached development plan we assume that under the veil of transparency the Trust has seen all the financial calculations ensuring the maths still add up but what is happening with regards to protection rights for the fans under future ownership? We are all glad to have our current owners and custodians in 2020 but that is no guarantee for future owners of the club and no-one has any appetite for being so close to the precipice once again due to owners being purely motivated by personal wealth accumulation rather than the club, its fans and the local community.
What is important is that the club is in a position of positive momentum when Power Court eventually opens. We don’t want it to be half-full every week as we linger in the lower leagues like that franchise effort up the road. We need to be building up both our fanbase and commercial sponsor base now, not destroying it. This is why the next managerial appointment is so much more critical than before to get us moving forward again with a feel-good factor returning to the club.
Power Court is an ambitious plan which needs to be matched on the pitch. Photo Credit: Luton Town FC
My views on the root cause of our problems remain as of my May article (thanks to all those that reached out) and nothing I have seen with my own eyes or heard from those close to the situation have done anything than cement these views. He even admitted in one interview that some people aren’t what they were on the way up. Well maybe some heads need to be taken out of the sand and some soul searching closer to home needs to be taken.
In the meantime, the embarrassment thrown on us from opposition fans along with the disgruntlement across Luton fans is growing every week. When I go to England games, proper football fans from all over the country are in bewilderment at our decline. The vitriol against our CEO walking down Hazelbury Crescent was incredible after the Plymouth game then chants for him to go started in the stands against Stevenage. However, rather than opening his eyes and ears to make corrective actions or even doing the honourable thing much of his time is now spent on social media platforms posting under his pseudonym trying to shamefully defend what is happening before our eyes.
A poor and weak culture in any organisation comes from the top. It is no surprise that the best leaders in any form of life are also the best listeners. They will surround themselves with the best people, who will openly challenge and push to ultimately achieve the best results. This drives a culture and performance through a business as well as respect and inspiration for everyone looking up to ’their leader’ for daily motivation. This is all required if we are to eventually return the pride back into our great club. Only in football are two years of mis-management rewarded with big paydays...
Anyway, time for the positive head to be re-inserted as I’ll be off to Cambridge this evening to cheer on Alex Lawless’ boys as we hopefully continue our march to Wembley and the chance to re-live that great JPT Final Day!!
Also, with no game this weekend due to it being an international weekend I would urge as many of you as possible to go and watch one of your many local non-league sides. I often go to my local Tier-5 side when Luton aren't playing and found it a great experience to reconnect my love with the sport and local community again. The quality of football is better than expected, the pitch side banter hilarious while pitch side drinking is allowed and importantly you can watch a match without the pressures and stresses we normally associate with a Saturday afternoon. All a good recipe for a happy house on a Saturday evening!!
