It was a very quiet transfer deadline day for Luton Town after they signed Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham) and Eunan O’Kane (Leeds) on loan deals the day before.
Manager Graeme Jones had not ruled out any exits from Kenilworth Road before the window shuts at 11pm, and that saw the club part ways with Alan Sheehan, while Lloyd Jones was sent on loan to Northampton.
While it wasn’t the busiest transfer window, Luton’s longest serving manager, David Pleat, has given his rundown of his best transfer signings from more than 600 games and two spells in charge over 12 years, when Town were regularly mixing it with the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United in the top-flight.
Mal Donaghy
“Mal Donaghy came for £15,000 from Larne and (before that) a little amateur side called Cromac Albion. My man in Ireland rang me and said, ‘there’s a boy playing for Larne, he’s only had 15 games, but you would like him.’ A man called Eddie Cochran, it was, he went on eventually to scout for Wolves. You lose your good scouts.
“We went over and there was an Irish Under-21 game, it was the first game of the Northern Irish playing the southern, they restarted those games because there had been terrible problems.
“I remember Mal Donaghy went down injured in that game and he needed attention, but he got up, played on because that was Mal’s thing.
“He was £15,000, he played 488 games for Luton Town. I’d left and Alex Ferguson rang me and said Luton want £650,000 for Donaghy, would you take him.
“I said, ‘he’s already 31, but I’d take him, Alex, he’s a top-class boy.’ Alex took him, he played about two seasons at Manchester, then went to Chelsea and retired when he was about 37.
“He went back to Ireland, to Belfast, to work with children with disabilities. Top man.”
Ricky Hill
“Ricky Hill, I got off the school fields at Hitchin, where he was playing for Sir John Kelly School, Cricklewood, in a cup tie at Hitchin.
“I covered it myself and took two Hitchin boys and Ricky. Ricky did fantastic.”
Brian Stein
“Brian Stein was playing at Boreham Wood one night and I remember the Watford people standing behind the goal – a man called Tom Wally. Stein and (Martyn) Sperrin played very well that night, playing for Edgeware Town at Boreham Wood.
“I came back the following day and said to (then Luton manager) Harry Haslam, ‘you’ve got to take that Sperrin and also maybe the boy, Stein’
“Anyway, we know the story. Brian Stein was a wonderful, wonderful player in my opinion, a terrific player.
“You could play any ball into him, around the box. He could turn people; he could do everything. He could head goals as well. Of course, he was a great signing because he played many, many games for Luton.”
Kirk Stevens
“When I was at Nuneaton, I had this 16-year-old boy called Kirk Stevens. Kirk had been rejected by Coventry when he was 14 or 15. I gave him his debut at Chelmsford for Nuneaton and I said to him, when I left and came to Luton with Harry (Haslam), ‘if one day I ever become a manager, I’ll come back and I’ll sign you, Kirk.’
“He played another 18 months or two seasons at Nuneaton and I think we signed him for £5,000. Kirk was also very, very good. He was terrific in the air, for his size, he had a great leap and he was a terrific personality.”
David Preece
“David Preece was a very good signing. I watched him more than any other player. I think I watched him six times. I was worried about his size and wondered whether he could do it in the top league. He did it.”
Raddy Antic
“That was a little bit of luck. I’d never even heard of Antic until an agent rang me four days before and said that Jim Smith (the Birmingham boss) was going to watch this player in Spain. (The agent said), ‘if you’re looking for someone to play alongside a centre half, there’s a lad called Antic and he’s worth seeing.’
“So, I thought I’d have a couple of days in Spain and I went to watch him. He was terrific, played at the back, played a couple of one-twos and I met him and thought what a top-class man.
“I got to the airport, I picked up a soccer magazine and his photo was on the front and I thought, ‘well, it’s destiny, I’ve got to sign this player’.”
Mick Harford
“I took Mick from Birmingham reserves. Ron Saunders (manager) cheated us on the price. We agreed a price and I came back and told John Smith what it was, and we got it all done. We spoke to the Birmingham secretary and when we went back to do the actual signing a few days later, Ron Saunders had added another £25,000. It was well worth it.
“I had a wonderful dressing room. I look back on it now and I wonder how I managed to persuade other managers not to take our players away, because they were so good.
“If you read Alex Ferguson’s book, he tells you that he couldn’t deal with me when he tried to sign Mick Harford.
“Mick Harford still believes that, I’m very close to Mick Harford, but it wasn’t true. What it was, is he came to me and said, ‘will you sell Mick Harford,’ and I said, ‘Alex, you must be joking, we arent’ going to sell Mick Harford.
“To be fair to Alex Ferguson, he could’ve easily gone around the back door to Mick, tapped him up and Mick could’ve come to me, knocked on the door and said, ‘I want to go, I’ve got a chance to go to Man United.’
“To be fair to Alex Ferguson, he never did that, but he maintains that I was difficult to deal with and I turned him down, but it wasn’t the case.”
Frank McAvennie (the one that got away)
“This is where John Smith (chief executive) and David Evans (chairman) buggered it up. We met Frank McAvennie at a hotel called the Bedford Arms in Woburn one evening.
“The boy brought his agent called (Bill) McMurdo, who had a bad reputation. We sat there talking and I always remember it because McAvennie had a red handkerchief and white socks.
“We were talking and talking and talking and he said – and you can read it in his book – ‘I want £400 a week’. We said, you’ll make that up, don’t worry. We’re a winning team with bonuses, signing on fees and loyalty fees, you’ll get more than that.
“The boy didn’t fully understand but, that night, as we were talking, they said, ‘well, we’ve booked the room for you. In the morning, we’ll come and collect you and take you to Luton and get the thing signed.
“As you can imagine, when we signed most players, like Richard Money, we wouldn’t bring them to the ground because, with the greatest respect, we weren’t proud of our ground.
“That night, John Lyall – who was a terrific bloke who I’d put in the top five of managers who I played against and met – that night, unbeknown to me had a phone call that night (with McAvennie) and said, ‘whatever Luton offer you, we will better.’
“We went to pick him up the following morning and he’d gone to the airport. He’d flown back to Scotland, Lyall met him in Scotland and we lost Frank McAvennie.”
