TOP HATTERS
Gregor Robertson explains how Luton’s patient approach is paying off
ASTATE of panic could quite easily have washed over the boardroom of Luton Town when their inspirational manager, Nathan Jones, suddenly departed for Stoke City last month.
A season of such promise suddenly threatened to be derailed. A hundred CVs soon winged their way to chief executive Gary Sweet.
Bookies’ odds rose and fell. Ryan Lowe? Michael Appleton? Paul Hurst? There were no shortage of solid options.
Luton, though, as they have done now for more than a decade, stepped back, took a breath, and recognised that they had a safe pair of hands in their midst already.
Step forward Mick Harford, the club’s head of recruitment, former Hatters manager and legend as a player. After a creditable 1-1 draw against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, Harford had led the Hatters to five consecutive League One wins pre-weekend, plundering 14 goals in the process, and on Tuesday, his 60th birthday, was handed the job until the end of the season.
Record
And Luton, six points clear at the summit of League One going into the weekend, were looking to rack up a club record 20th unbeaten league game yesterday.
I played for Harford, briefly, during his spell as caretaker-manager of Nottingham Forest in 2004/05, and again at Rotherham United the following season in League One.
The former Chelsea, Wimbledon and Luton forward has a well-earned and deserved reputation as one of the hardest men to have ever played the game.
That may do him no harm in commanding respect but he is also a measured and intelligent coach for whom I enjoyed working greatly.
Indeed, it is a surprise that his managerial career has been limited to those roles and a previous spell in the dugout at Kenilworth Road during the club’s struggles a decade ago.
While he has been the first to admit that his task was to maintain momentum and change as little as possible, it does him a disservice, I believe, to suggest that he has had to do nothing.
If Luton should continue in their current vein and romp to the League One title, there would no doubt be a clamour for Harford to lead the club back into the Championship after 12 years outside the second tier.
Indeed, at any other club, it would almost feel like a foregone conclusion; even Manchester United may find Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s glow too alluring.
But both Luton and Harford insist it is a short-term fix. A safe pair of hands to guide Luton through a period of transition. And it is hard not to admire them for that. Which has been true of most decisions they have made in the past decade. An ambitious, progressive young coach to take the mantle from Jones will be another forward step for the club – and what a job for a manager to walk in to. Just over a decade since Luton exited administration with that controversial 30-point deduction that led to a five-year exile from the Football League, it is hard to think of a more contented club in the EFL. Ask Hatters fans about their renaissance, though, and they will tell you that the strides taken off the pitch have helped fuel those on it. Luton have collected a host of accolades for their wide-ranging community work in one of the most impoverished and ethnically diverse towns in the country.
A club whose support was known in darker days for racist chants and violence were even cited in a recent parliamentary review as an example of best practice.
A concerted effort to inculcate a sense of pride in the club and its environment saw Luton become the first English club to become an accredited living-wage employer.
Pride
They have continually refused lucrative sponsorship from betting companies on ethical grounds at a cost, Sweet, left, says, of at least £500,000.
They are an example of the power for good a football club can wield, and a longstanding aim of changing its very landscape also came one step closer to fruition last month.
I have always loved, as a player and spectator, visiting the evocative Kenilworth Road, but it has long been clear that to progress and compete in the Championship and beyond, their future lies away from the gloriously ramshackle old place.
Luton council have finally approved planning for a new 17,500 capacity stadium in the centre of town but a separate mixeduse office, hotel and retail site near junction 10 of the M1 still requires approval in order to fund the project. With an expected £250 million annual boost to the region’s economy and 10,000 new jobs, it is a project that is potentially transformative.
Sweet has gone on record stating that the club’s aim is to win the Champions League: the kind of statement that elicits a wry smile but one which is suggestive of the bristling ambition in Bedfordshire. Harford looks set to steer Luton back into the Championship. Whoever the baton is handed to in the summer, don’t be surprised to see them continue Luton’s ascent.