Negative 30: The Story of Luton Town

Negative 30 degrees Celsius: It's the coldest place on earth.

England has suffered a cold spell recently with lots of snow and ice. It seems that as soon as one lot melts, it's back. But even though it's been cold and miserable, Luton has had a cold front all of its own.

Well the English football season is currently heading towards the final furlong, and as a sports fan, I have never been so despondent about what the future holds for my team. I want to take a brief step back in time to explain.

Four years ago Luton Town were promoted the Football League Championship—one rung of the ladder below the English Premier League. Now top flight football is not a strange thing for Luton. During the 1980s and early '90s, this was our home—happily beating the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United week in week out.

But since Luton's relegation in '92, the team have been falling through the leagues. But now we were on a high after several successful years on the pitch. We were at a level we felt comfortable with.

We had a board which seemed to back the team and a highly-rated young manager in Mike Newell, who seemed to be one of the hottest properties around after leading Luton to the Coca-Cola League One title. We also had a good young squad of players lined with experienced player.

After a successful first year back in the Championship, it all started to go pear shaped. A few of our senior players wanted a move to bigger sides like Leeds United and Derby County—teams who seemed to be on the cusp of being promoted to the Premier League. Our manger also decided to make a few statements, which caught the national press.

The first was about corruption in the beautiful game. It was all based on how agents and managers were taking bungs and kickbacks in the transfer of players to different clubs. This helped to prompt the Lord Stephens enquiry, which after several months of investigation and millions of pounds being spent came up with no conclusions or anything they could take to the Football Association. 

The second  was a slightly sexiest comment about a female assistant referee claiming she was useless and the only reason she was officiating at the Luton home game was because she was female and the Football Association only appointed her as an official was out of political correctness.

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