Luton Town
After a fantastic end of season flourish, Luton gave Stevenage something to think about at the top end of the Blue Square Premier League. Finishing second, they cemented their place in the play offs but have recently lost to York City in their semi final.
Football Focus Magazine caught up with their Managing Director, Gary Sweet last month to talk about a period of turmoil that is beginning to calm. Despite disappointment in the playoffs they are now out of administration and showing signs of improvement. Luton will hope to be a football league club once more in the near future.
Gary Sweet
“We went into administration three seasons ago when we were in league 1 and had just endured relegation from the Championship. I then put together a consortium of investors to buy the club out of administration.
We were fed up with various previous owners who came in and were trying to relocate the club elsewhere in order for property gain rather than football interests. We took it finally out of administration at the beginning of last season in league 2.Its been challenging, but all involved are fans and we love the club. Certainly, it makes the tough decisions a little easier.
We’ve brought player salaries down 80 percent since we took over and our aim is to stabilise the place financially. In the future we will need a new facility, either a new stadium here or elsewhere, but the whole purpose from the outset will be if worst comes to the worst we will be able to operate effectively.
Ours is a difficult league to get out of. From our perspective, we had to learn very quickly about a different attitude at this level and the reality of our situation. The fact that there is only one guaranteed promotion place and another through the playoffs means there is a bottle neck of quality clubs at the top end of the division, all desperate to burst onto the football league scene.
We are now clicking and it’s been a valiant effort from Richard Money, our Manager. He is diligent, dedicated and very focused. He gives the job the attention it needs.
We remain an ambitious club, but stability comes first. Stability and patience don’t necessarily sell tickets however! We have a great deal of faith and belief in our supporters. They are intelligent and understand how finance and politics work within the game.
Positively, we’ve a great set of youngsters coming through and have increased spending on our youth development section. It has our full commitment because we’ve a fine heritage of bringing through players. Matthew Upson and Curtis Davies are two recent examples. We have a long term approach here and have set up a twelve year plan to put the club back on the map. It includes a number of strategic targets and we are going all out to achieve those by 2020.”