![]() The resulting half-hour programme, aired a year later, really has to be seen to be believed. Handily, filmmakers from the long-running BBC documentary series Trouble At The Top were given behind-the-scenes access for the big day. “I had a very good meeting with Mr Gurney,” he said, “and I was very flattered to be offered the job from 70 candidates, but I just think it was the right club at the wrong time.” But the day before the polls closed, Cotterill threw a spanner in the works. “We’ve two excellent candidates in Steve and Mike Newell,” Gurney cheered. Gurney initially revealed he had agreed terms with Kinnear to return should he win, then admitted he had been unable to contact the former manager all week. In the meantime, Gurney set about attempting to agree terms with the shortlisted trio. A press conference for the unveiling was scheduled at 1pm … the same day. The premium lines – 50p per call – were opened. The final decision would be split between five votes: players, shareholders, season-ticket holders, the board and the general public. On Monday 16 June the first set of results were announced and the list whittled down to three: Kinnear (who polled around 70%), Cotterill, recently sacked by Sunderland, and Newell, who had most recently had a mixed time of it with Hartlepool. With a Formula One circuit attached.įans were presented with a shortlist of candidates – Fenwick, Kinnear, Nigel Clough, Steve Cotterill, Mike Newell, Stuart Pearce, Gardner Speirs and Gudjon Thordarson – and invited to text in their votes. He would build a 70,000-seat stadium next to Junction 10 of the M1. He suggested a merger with the Milton Keynes-bound Wimbledon was not out of the question. He planned to change the club’s name to London Luton FC, to match the airport. In the meantime he set about sowing chaos and floating a series of madcap ideas. Gurney claimed to be backed by international investors whose identity would soon be revealed (spoiler alert: they never were). ![]() The consortium remained anonymous but a smarmy, smiling frontman arrived at Kenilworth Road – John Gurney. At the end of the season, owner Mike Watson-Challis sold the club to a mysterious consortium for just £4. Luton, though, had been caught up in the fallout from ITV Digital’s explosion the year before – there were reports of the club losing £500,000 a month. He steered the club back to the third tier at the first attempt and followed it up with a more-than-respectable ninth-place finish in 2002-03. Kinnear had arrested a decade of decline at Kenilworth Road, taking over as Luton were relegated to the bottom tier in 2001 (the first time the Hatters had been in the fourth tier since the 1960s). As the confetti fell on a celebrating Young, Luton and their manager, Joe Kinnear, were travelling back from a defeat at Rochdale. The programme would prove the inspiration for one of the most shambolic (with the emphasis on sham) managerial appointments in football history. ![]()
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