Opinion: By getting rid of Jones, Luton are showing football will have to cut its cloth after Covid crisis

Finding things to do during lockdown is not the easiest task in the world, but thankfully that was not an issue last Friday.

With it being the anniversary of the greatest day in Luton Town history, it was a perfect excuse to pop onto YouTube and check out the highlights of that day, and draw on the memories of it.

However those plans were interrupted by the news that Graeme Jones and members of his coaching staff had left the club by mutual consent.

Often when a manager departs you can see it coming, but I must admit this one took me completely by surprise, as much for the fact that football is not operational at present, so I certainly didn’t expect a major announcement like this.

The fact it happened highlights the delicate financial climate that football at second tier level is in. Who knows when the sport is going to resume, and how it will do so when it does, but the strong consensus seems to be that it is going to be quite some time before usual match day revenue is generated.

Ultimately something has to give, and on this occasion it was Jones and three members of his backroom team – assistant manager Gary Brabin, first-team coach Inigo Idiakez and technical goalkeeping coach Imanol Etzeberria.

Jones assembled one of the largest sets of staff the club have ever had, much to the angst of many supporters who could not see the need for so many individuals, in roles that sounded like they were created at the time they were announced.

I understood the reasons for bringing in the fitness and science experts but something was always going to give at some point regarding the ‘technical’ coaches, whether now or should the worst have happened and we got relegated to League One.

Quite simply they are a luxury we wouldn’t be able to afford, and probably wouldn’t have needed, however the potential financial collapse, that Covid-19 has caused, sped up their exit.

Jones, though, was slightly different. I would imagine he was on a decent whack. Football men with the coaching resumes that he has can tend to demand a pretty penny, but he was technically recruited when we were a League One club, so getting rid of him if we dropped back down to that level again was not as set in stone, in my mind.

It could be that the club feel they haven’t got value for money from the most recent custodian in the managerial hotseat, and while form was improving before lockdown arrived, it is probably hard to argue against that.

Ten wins in 37 league matches isn’t a record that is going to be impossible to replace, so it could be the club chose to go down that route, notwithstanding the potential manager bounce that all our relegation rivals seem to have had already this term, that making the decision may bring.

With the economic downturn the way it is, those who used to fill their shopping basket with Tesco Finest groceries may need to live on their Value products in the immediate future.

By getting rid of Jones, Brabin, Idiakez and Etzeberria, our club is highlighting football may have to do the same.