Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet has backed manager Matt Bloomfield but conceded that results must improve, while also discussing his own role at the club.
Saturday’s bruising 3-1 defeat at Lincoln City was a fourth reverse in eight League One matches and a second on the spin, but it was the manner of the performance that has caused concern among the fanbase in the days since, as they were outfought and outplayed by the Imps.
Boss Bloomfield called the display “unacceptable” in the immediate moments after the game, having had to suffer boos and chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” from travelling supporters. The songs didn’t surprise Sweet.
“I completely get it as a fan,” he admitted in an interview with the BBC, adding: “My job is to be a little bit more calming and a little bit more long term and take the lens out from particular results or even particular performances.
“And there’s been a few reviews, of course, like amongst players themselves and coaching staff and everything just particularly on that. I think also, we we do have to allow ourselves a bad performance.
“We’ve got to understand that we’ve just had the biggest transfer window with more changes since I came in and we do need that time for for those players to settle. So occasionally we just need to forgive just a bad day off. And as long as we recover from that, we’ve got to be different on Saturday.”
Sweet insisted Bloomfield retains the board’s trust, saying: “I’m really happy with the way Matt’s responded from Saturday.”
He added: “I want fans to know that, actually, their reaction after the game on Saturday probably wasn’t really any different to to ours or Matt’s or a lot of the players, really. So nobody was particularly happy on Saturday.
“If Matt wasn’t capable, we would have absolutely no qualms in making that tough decision. We’re not afraid of making tough decisions. Matt is incredibly capable, incredibly resilient, incredibly determined. He has become so enthused by this football club that it’s an energy you can only really see if you go to the training ground. He does create a fantastic environment. We need to turn that environment into performances.
“Matt needs to manage that. So that’s not to say we’re not putting pressure on Matt and everybody. We’re putting pressure on Matt by doing this interview, putting pressure on the players by doing this interview, but but after Saturday’s performance, we probably deserve a little bit.”
But Sweet was clear about the consequences of prolonged failure, saying: “If we keep losing games and if we keep turning in poor performances, of course we’re going to part company with the manager. That’s happened at every single football club, including this one in the past.”
On his own position, with fans questioning whether the demands of delivering the new Power Court stadium dilutes his focus on the football side of the club, Sweet admitted the 25,000-seater development takes up half his time, but remained defiant.
“I certainly believe I am full of energy. I don’t lack any of that. I’m full of enthusiasm and spirit and I know how to run the business. But it’s ultimately a decision that the board will take, not me. There’s nobody that cares more and there’s nobody that’s going to work harder. I’ve been nearly 18 years in the role and I swear I’m just as enthusiastic and I desire the progression as much now as I ever have done.”
Sweet also dismissed calls, from some supporters, for a director of football to be installed to ease the workload.
“Is it a question that we have asked ourselves, whether that’s something we need? It is, amongst the board and in our exec team – and the answer is no, it isn’t.
“Generally speaking, what you have with a director of football, it’s a continental European, frame structure generally that supports a head coach rather than a football manager. We want Matt to be a manager and to manage that whole environment at the Brache, including medical and including sports science and including getting involved heavily in recruitment, which he does.”
Just over two years ago, after Luton won promotion to the Premier League for the first time, Sweet stood on the stage in St George’s Square in the centre of town as the whole community celebrated and issued a now infamous line about not getting all “Billy big bollocks” by letting the top flight change the club and its supporters.
Asked if the club has done what he warned against, he said: “No we haven’t. We’re we’re here in these offices. We’re so grounded and always have been. We were really conscious of that, actually. It was a real conscious thing that we we remained humble, we remained Luton.
“There’s a lot of Lutonians work for us, but we keep ourselves Lutonian here and that has never happened. Whatever the perception might be, that has never, ever happened.”
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