Luton's Future Stilll in Doubt

floody · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:30 pm

Quote:

Luton's future remains in doubt after the deadline for prospective buyers expired on Monday with no news on whether a new owner had been found.

An announcement is not expected to be made until Tuesday at the earliest.

The cash-strapped League One club were put into administration on 22 November, earning them a 10-point deduction.

Manager Kevin Blackwell had hoped the club would be a more attractive prospect after they earned an FA Cup third-round replay against Liverpool.

Surely anybody looking at that must think Luton's got something going and want to be part of it

The Hatters impressed in their 1-1 draw with the Reds at Kenilworth Road with a lucrative replay to come on Tuesday, 15 January.

Blackwell told BBC Radio Five Live: "It was a terrific team performance and it was thoroughly well deserved.

"What we have done is hopefully given a buyer out there a chink of light and made them think that we are worth a gamble on.

"If we've done that then the lads have done all they can to save the football club."

The replay at Anfield will bring in �250,000 as the club fights for its future.

The League One outfit, currently in administration and struggling to pay the wages of their staff, will be forced to sell off their best players should a buyer not be found.

"But you have to live in hope and that hope was given by a fantastic performance by the players," said Blackwell.

"I don't want to lose a side I am starting to build here. That is the frustration.

"Surely anybody looking at that must think Luton's got something going and want to be part of it.

"All we can do is the football but if we can make it as attractive a proposition as we can, it must help a buyer come in and please God, we've done that."

Blackwell said that the worst part of the situation is that the club went into administration without any warning.

"Nobody was prepared for administration, which means no wages and that has caused a few problems because there are a lot of lads here at Luton who don't earn the money that can see off a rainy day for longer than a week or two."

floody · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:43 pm

Quote:

Television presenter and lifelong Luton fan Nick Owen is fronting a bid to buy the troubled League One club.

His consortium, funded by local and overseas businessmen, expect a decision from the administrator on Wednesday.

"I cannot wait for us to get the go-ahead - I'm very hopeful," Owen told BBC Three Counties Radio.

Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle says "more than one" bid has been received and that they hope for exclusive talks with the winning bidder within a week.

"We have more than one bid which is obviously good news," said Guilfoyle, who imposed a deadline of 1700 GMT on Monday for all interested parties to lodge formal offers.

"We are now in the process of getting one bid to the stage of being the preferred bidder and then entering exclusive negotiations.

"The price of that is for one party to start funding the club straight away.

I'm very positive that we could well be the only credible bid

"We are asking for that to test their commitment."

Luton entered administration on 22 November and were deducted 10 points accordingly.

Owen confirmed that his consortium's bid is backed by the three principal supporters' groups, including the supporters' trust.

"It is a great lift to know they are right behind us," said the 60-year-old presenter of the BBC's Midlands Today.

"The people in the consortium are all lifelong Luton fans.

"These guys have worked so hard over a few weeks now to put together a very impressive application - 64 pages of it.

They are big Luton fans and have pulled together some very successful businessmen who are Luton fans.

"It blew my mind away when I read the application"

Some of the investment is being provided by former Luton youth player Mick Pattinson who is now president and chief executive of US housebuilder Barratt American.

He is joined by other long standing season-ticket holders and two unnamed former players who now have successful business interests.

"They're coming in because they want to see this club survive," said Owen, who added that former England manager Graham Taylor was acting as a football advisor to one other group which, he claimed, has not made a bid.

"I'm very positive that we could well be the only credible bid," said Owen.

Guilfoyle admitted last week that the club would be forced to sell players if funding was not made available instantly.

Chairman David Pinkney had agreed to fund the losses of the club out of his own pocket but that deal expired at the end of the year, potentially leaving Guilfoyle with no option.

But such a scenario could yet be avoided if a bidder agrees to invest enough, and hopes are high following Sunday's morale-boosting FA Cup draw with Liverpool.

"I sense the need to get there as early as we can and I am hopeful that within the next week we can get to that stage," said Guilfoyle.

"It is important at this stage to respect the confidentiality of the parties.

"They have shown us that they have the money but now we need them to open their wallets.

"The players are getting paid now for the first two weeks of January which they deserve after their recent results."

Promising news for fans of Luton.

spurmeon · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:16 pm

Should the FA be more pro active in keeping clubs solvent?

It cannot help the clubs when they are docked points !
or are the FA trying to slim the leagues down by natural wastage?
Should the rules be changed to allow one club to own another ?
It could be in the interest of some premier clubs to own or have shared ownership of other clubs .

This would give them a better way to try new talent in a more competitive league and a 2nd stadium they can use if anything is preventing the use of their 1st stadium.

Question

It may benefit Tottenham say to own Luton build Luton a bigger stadium which Spurs could also use (while The new White Hart Lane is being built) keep a reasonable side and add out of favour players from our squad to the Luton squad until fitter or Improved .

It would keep the Luton name alive and in all other ways be independent of Tottenham ... Just an Idea .

I think we will see other clubs as Famous and the size of Luton and bigger go to the wall with the set up of the present football League's . Money is not trickling down from the Big clubs to the Small clubs So i think the big clubs have some responsibility to help keep the small clubs going .

J-Axe · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:17 am

floody · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:14 pm

Quote:

Luton Town manager Kevin Blackwell has resigned from the financially stricken League One club which is currently in administration, it has emerged.

Blackwell will depart after the home game against Bournemouth on 9 February, reports BBC Three Counties Radio.

His assistant Sam Ellis and head coach John Carver will also be leaving.

The administrator has agreed to sell key players without consulting the management. Five players have left while three others are under offer.

In a statement, Blackwell said: "We [Blackwell, Carver and Ellis] came to Luton in the spring with a clear mission and it revolved around ambition, adequate investment for growth and real promise of a new stadium.

It is now our belief that no possible future scenario for this club can match in any way shape or form what we came here to do

"Very quickly we found out that Luton Town Football Club did not do what it said on the tin.

"We have ended up managing a squad of players who do not know if they are being paid or have a future with the football club. This is becoming more relevant as we speak.

"It is not our role or intention to blame anybody for the state the club are in but we have face reality for ourselves.

"It is now our belief that no possible future scenario for this club can match in any way shape or form what we came here to do.

"Ironically we no longer have contracts that would require us to give notice but we are acutely aware that just to walk away would simply add to the short-term problems.

"We will therefore continue work under our basic terms and conditions for approximately one month, leaving the club after home game against Bournemouth on February 9."

BBC 3CR sports editor Simon Oxley said: "The club's in a state of chaos.

"[Blackwell, Ellis and Carver] don't want to walk out but they've had enough of players leaving.

"They had been assured players wouldn't be sold before the FA Cup replay against Liverpool but they've had the rug pulled from under their feet."

It's not just selling his best players that's got up KB's nose - but that they have gone and done it without even talking to him about it

Midfielder David Edwards, 21, is set to join Wolves for �675,000 and defender Chris Coyne, 29, has already joined Colchester for �350,000.

Midfielder Ahmet Brkovic, 33, has made his loan move to Millwall permanent.

Lewis Emanuel and Ed Asafu-Adjaye have gone on loan to Lincoln and Salisbury respectively, while bids have been lodged for three other players.

The administrator has accepted an offer by an unnamed club for goalkeeper Dean Brill while Calvin Andrew and Drew Talbot are considering offers from Plymouth.

Television presenter and lifelong Luton fan Nick Owen is fronting a bid to buy the troubled club in a rescue operation.

Owen says his consortium's bid is backed by the three principal supporters' groups, including the supporters' trust.

The disruption continues.

spurmeon · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:31 am

Seems odd that a club only a season or so ago beat Spurs now are in this mess!

Luton is no small place is there any local groups trying to keep the club alive ?

At the rate things are going on at Luton town there's not going to be much to save soon!

Im still a bit shocked at the lack of anyone willing to save a club with Luton's History.

floody · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:35 am

There is a consortium fronted by Nick Owen trying their hardest it seems.

spurmeon · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:41 am

lets hope they have the funds available to buy Luton and turn things around ...

I hope if this happens they go to court and try and recover fees paid to Agents without reason !

they should not be selling players and assets while a rescue plan is in progress !.

magnifico · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:08 pm

the fan-backed 2020 bid has won exclusive rights to buy the club! Cool

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11719_3049884,00.html

a bright light at the end of the tunnel for our great club

oh and spurmeon i appreciate your sentiments above but i think i speak for most luton fans when i say i'd rather we went under than became someone else's reserve team. We'll never die but we have our pride too!

Bluenose · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:14 pm

magnifico wrote:

the fan-backed 2020 bid has won exclusive rights to buy the club! Cool

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11719_3049884,00.html

a bright light at the end of the tunnel for our great club

oh and spurmeon i appreciate your sentiments above but i think i speak for most luton fans when i say i'd rather we went under than became someone else's reserve team. We'll never die but we have our pride too!

Yeah he meant well but it just wouldn't be right would it?

magnifico · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:34 pm

haha no

the administrator has just announced that not only is he now negotiating exclusively with the consortium backed by all the fan groups and containing prominent fans and ex players, but the player sales over the past week have got him enough money for now and he won't have to sell any more for the rest of the season

there's still a lot of work to be done but it seems we are now back on the way up - the luton fans' messageboard is buzzing with joy Cool

spurmeon · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 9:18 pm

Thanks i think Embarassed

But i think in time without big changes Teams like Luton will be facing extinction !

all that's been archived is its been put off for a little bit longer !

Money is flooding into the top clubs but flooding out of the small clubs a situation that cannot continue without clubs going to the wall .

some reorganising is needed to stop the haemorrhage of money out of the lower leagues .

magnifico · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:07 am

totally agree with you, the immense enthusiasm and passion for football in england is being harnessed and channeled into the pockets of rupert murdoch and the owners of the 'big four'. the rest of the teams in the premiership are doing very nicely and everyone else can just go bust as far as the powers-that-be are concerned.

this situation isn't even good for fans of the rich teams, look at how many real football fans go to watch fcu'm having been priced out of Old Trafford by the glazers' business plan

I would say though that the solution is for fans to take more control of football in this country, after all without us it would be nothing. also the obscene amount of tv money should be more evenly distributed amongst the leagues. The solution isn't for the lower league teams to be colonised by the richer clubs, we just won't accept that - i'd rather be a loyal supporter of a non-league mickey mouse outfit than a Spurs reserve team in the championship, sorry about that

J-Axe · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:31 am

magnifico wrote:

totally agree with you, the immense enthusiasm and passion for football in england is being harnessed and channeled into the pockets of rupert murdoch and the owners of the 'big four'.

Arsenal?

magnifico · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:43 am

J-Axe wrote:

Arsenal?

yes, Arsenal are extremely rich from sky and champions' league money and extremely successful as a result.

though i do grant that wenger has made some canny buys during his time there and probably achieved more with a smaller budget than the other three have.

J-Axe · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:26 am

magnifico wrote:

J-Axe wrote:

Arsenal?

yes, Arsenal are extremely rich from sky and champions' league money and extremely successful as a result.

though i do grant that wenger has made some canny buys during his time there and probably achieved more with a smaller budget than the other three have.

Extremely rich from success mate. No skillionaire foreigners coming in and making us a top four Club. The Club has been successful through centuries and is at the top now because of those strong traditions, pedigree and hard work. Discrediting us or our Board for that is wrong.

We're not in the same boat as the other three in terms of foreigners investing in it like a business. Man United can't be blamed for becoming what they are either really. Success is priority and when you're at the top, maintaining that success often means money.

How the official people and the media pay out their cash to the 'successful' Clubs is not the fault of the Clubs.

magnifico · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:12 am

Quote:

How the official people and the media pay out their cash to the 'successful' Clubs is not the fault of the Clubs.

Never said it was the fault of the clubs, if someone was offering me loads of money I probably wouldn't turn it down even if I knew that luxury for me meant poverty for others. That doesn't make it fair, or good for football as a whole - when it gets to the point that the premiership is tedious because it's just the top four thrashing everyone else every week, when premiership fans can't afford to go and watch their own team because the club is run as a business catering for the prawn sandwich brigade, and when the England team gives up even pretending to be a world power because with all the money sloshing around it's easier just to buy young players from abroad than to develop them here then maybe even the fans of rich clubs will realise what we in the lower leagues have known for a while - that radical change is needed. None of these things are very far off in my opinion.

The bottom line is that it is obscene that clubs like Luton and Bournemouth are fighting for their very existence given the amount of money in English football at the moment.

spurmeon · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 4:58 pm

Quote:

centuries

?

er um how many centuries would that be lol

really must do homework on Arsenal's long History .....

How it got to where it is today ....

the bung years .....

Twisted Evil

floody · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:15 pm

magnifico wrote:

Quote:

How the official people and the media pay out their cash to the 'successful' Clubs is not the fault of the Clubs.

Never said it was the fault of the clubs, if someone was offering me loads of money I probably wouldn't turn it down even if I knew that luxury for me meant poverty for others. That doesn't make it fair, or good for football as a whole - when it gets to the point that the premiership is tedious because it's just the top four thrashing everyone else every week, when premiership fans can't afford to go and watch their own team because the club is run as a business catering for the prawn sandwich brigade, and when the England team gives up even pretending to be a world power because with all the money sloshing around it's easier just to buy young players from abroad than to develop them here then maybe even the fans of rich clubs will realise what we in the lower leagues have known for a while - that radical change is needed. None of these things are very far off in my opinion.

The bottom line is that it is obscene that clubs like Luton and Bournemouth are fighting for their very existence given the amount of money in English football at the moment.

I agree with that sentiment certainly.