Luton Boss under pressure?

Recent poor results seem to be taking their toll on Luton boss Mike Newell. His press conference comments are usually spot on with no excuses, and he rarely lashes out verbally even when he has good cause.

However, his recent comments about the Chairman have led Bill Tomlins to respond, which is not a good sign.

Mike is reported as having said:

‘I haven’t spoken to him (Tomlins) for months. You should speak to him yourself to find out why he’s here and what he’s doing here.

‘I can’t understand why he’s here and what he’s doing.

‘He hasn’t made any decisons. He hasn’t done anything.

‘Everything he gets into he has messed up and I’m just about fed up with it.

‘I keep getting told that when we get planning permission there will be money to spend or that next week the club will change hands.

‘I’ve had it for two years. It was easier when we were in administration because we had nothing and we just had 20 players to work with.’

Regarding extending players’ contracts before they run out he added:

‘Players like Markus Heikkinen should have been tied up eight months ago, but we’re going to end up losing them for nothing because they will let their contracts run out.

‘When I committed myself to the club I expected them to follow that by committing the players.

‘They want to know why they haven’t been offered new contracts and I want to know why as well.’

The Daily Mirror reports Tomlins as saying:

‘I am a bit taken aback by what Mike said and I don’t know what is wrong with him at the moment.

‘I knew he had a few issues with me, but it seems that every time we lose, he has something more to say about me.

‘We have backed him in everything he wanted to do and we pay him a big salary.

‘But that’s four defeats in a row now and it doesn’t look good.’

In addition, Mike vented his spleen regarding the performance, on Saturday, of Assistant Referee, Amy Raynor, extrapolating further to declare that there is no place in professional football for female officials.

He said after the match:

‘She shouldn’t be here. It sounds sexist, but I am sexist. We have a real problem with all this politically correct stuff in this country, but she simply shouldn’t be here.

‘It’s not the way to improve officiating by letting women into the game – it beggars belief.

‘The foul on Carlos was a penalty – there’s no two ways about it. D’Urso didn’t give it and neither did she.

‘Can anybody tell me why she’s here? When we get to the stage where they’re all women, then we’re in trouble.

‘We’ve got a bad enough problem with the standard of referees and linesman that we’ve already got, but when we start bringing women into the game we’ve got a problem.

‘Girls can play junior football to a certain age and then they’re not allowed to play so why are we allowing them to officiate in Championship football matches?

‘It’s Championship level, we’re not talking parks football here.’

An official statement by Luton Town FC reads:

‘An emergency board meeting of the directors of Luton Town has been called for 4pm today (Monday).

‘The meeting is to discuss the comments made by the manager, Mike Newell, at Saturday’s post-match press conference.

‘A formal statement will be made following the board meeting.’

Mike’s position with the club must be in doubt, but bearing in mind that he has had offers elsewhere and the mood he is in at the moment, I doubt he gives a monkey’s what the club decide at their meeting.



In addition, The FA have announced that they are officially looking into the sexist remarks by Newell, and in view of the fact that he has twice before been warned as to his future conduct, he can expect punishment from them too.