Ex-Hatters duo Benson and Turner appointed to key academy roles at Luton

Luton have announced that two former Hatters, Paul Benson and Wayne Turner, have been appointed to key roles within the club’s academy.

Conference title-winning striker Benson is academy manager, with former midfielder Turner, who won the old Division Two (now Championship) with Town in 1981-82, returning to Kenilworth Road to work alongside him as head of academy development.

Benson, 43, scored 17 goals as John Still’s Town side returned to the Football League in 2013-14, before leaving in 2016 to return to his first professional club, Dagenham & Redbridge, having netted 25 times in 85 appearances.

He returned to coach in the academy in 2017 on a part-time basis, and since 2019 has been a full-time coach before becoming PDP head of coaching and acting as interim academy director since Paul Hart’s departure at the end of January.

Luton-born Turner, 62, signed for the Hatters as a teenager in 1978, winning promotion from the second tier under David Pleat four years later and made the majority of his 103 appearances in the top flight.

He scored a famous derby winner against Watford in an FA Cup fifth round replay during the run to the semi-final in 1985, leaving for Coventry soon afterwards, but returned to coach the Hatters in the 1990s before joining Peterborough and then managing Stevenage.

Turner came back to Kenilworth Road once more in 2012 to head up the youth system as academy manager, and has retained close links to the club since departing in 2015, assisting with the academy throughout the current campaign.

Meanwhile, leaving the Academy to return to her native Scotland is lead physiotherapist Lauren Low, with Connor Wright taking over as her replacement and Paige Simms joining as academy sports therapist.

Another new arrival, Kobie Dee, has taken over as head of education.