Sweet confirms new manager search is 'well underway' to take over 'sexy project' at Luton

Luton’s hunt for a new manager to take over what has been described as a ‘sexy project' at Kenilworth Road is already ‘well underway’ according to Town CEO Gary Sweet.

Although former boss Nathan Jones’ departure to Premier League Southampton on Thursday might have come out of the blue to many, the top flight club making their intentions known just a few days earlier, it was something that Sweet and the rest of the hierarchy at Kenilworth Road had been preparing for, such was the success being achieved by the Welshman in leading Town to the play-offs last term.

Plans were already being formulated behind the scenes as to just who could be brought in should the 49-year-old leave for pastures new, ensuring the club were ahead of the game for such an eventuality.

When asked how the process to appoint a replacement was going, Sweet said: “It’s well underway, I can give you some reassurance on that and with no disrespect to Nathan as he kind of even knew this was going on, but we’ve been tracking managers for two, three years.

“What we now do, we actually implement a very similar model to the way we recruit and identify players coming in.

"We've been doing the same thing with managers with regards to the way they play, even some of their character traits, their media presentation.

“It’s quite important having to deal with you guys (press), but all of these things we’ve been tracking.

“We’ve got really strong due diligence profiles on a lot of people and so we were more than ready when it happened.

“That’s not to suggest to anyone that we were expecting this to happen necessarily, but it happens, so why would you not be prepared?

“Shock, horror, manager leaves a football club!

“It happens, so where we’re really blessed and fortunate is that we’ve got a great team of recruitment staff that do this for players and can do this for managers, so why not?

“We’ve been more than ready, we’re in a fantastic position.

"A very, very well known and well respected football agent who we get on very well with has called this, he said he couldn’t quite believe this, but Luton’s a sexy project now.

“When clubs are looking for a new manager, it’s usually because clubs get rid of a manager and they’re languishing in the bottom half of the table, probably lower than that.

“We’re in a very, very strong position, so we are a really attractive proposition.

"We talk to people more about Premier League football than we do about League One, I can assure you and that’s the ambition we’re going to continue and that’s the profile of the person that will take those reins.”

Going into more detail on just who will be responsible for picking the new manager, Sweet confirmed that Jones himself didn’t have a say on his successor, as he continued: “Nathan, no, I think out of respect to him and Southampton he now needs to focus on Southampton.

"Mick (Harford, chief recruitment office), absolutely, front and centre, 100 per cent.

"Literally the second we heard that this was a possibility, we put together a small team of people with good experience inside the club, that predominantly from our recruitment including myself and Paul Watson, Mick and then Phil Chapple (head of scouting operations), Jay (Socik, head of recruitment analysis) and then engaged with the board on that.

"Then we started our work and it’s effectively that team that are making selections, short-listing candidates and meeting them.”

Asked what kind of timeframe he has set to have the new man in place, with Luton having a month off due to the World Cup following Saturday’s game against Rotherham that will be taken by Harford, Sweet added: “The sooner we make an appointment, the more time they've got to prepare for when the lads come back.

"I think that's really important and really vital, so as soon as possible.

“I would hope that if we were to have a press conference this time next week, that it would be done and dusted.

"There's no guarantees on that, but that's what I'm hoping.”