Hatters chief believes Sheehan's return will aid former skipper's own aspirations to be a manager one day

Town boss Nathan Jones believes that former skipper Alan Sheehan’s return to the club as first team coach will help him greatly in his quest to become a manager in his own right one day.

The former Irish U21 international has been destined for a role in coaching ever since he was at the Hatters, taking his A Licence during his time with Luton, as he began planning what he would do when he finished playing

That day came this week when Sheehan decided to hang up his boots, and following a spell as player coach with Oldham Athletic, Town moved to get their man, who admitted on his departure from the Hatters in 2019, he would love to be a manager one day.

Speaking about his appointment, Jones said: “He probably has aspirations of being a manager but he has a lot of development to go yet, a lot of learning because of the way we work, we’re quite thorough, so it is a good education for him.

"We want to educate him to a good level so that he has choices in the future, that is what we do.

"Every member of staff coming here, we’ve never had to move a member of staff on because they haven’t been up to speed.

"We’ve taken our time and we’re under more threat from people poaching our staff, that’s the level we are.

"We believe we will develop Alan for us, and we will also give him an education for anything he wants to do in the future.”

Jones felt that Sheehan's background at the Hatters, having been a huge part of the club's promotions from League Two to the Championship, meant he was the right man ease the demands on fellow first team coach Chris Cohen.

He continued: "We don’t bring staff in lightly but we just felt lately with the demands that are on the coaching staff, we felt we needed another one and we’ve felt that for a little while.

"It’s about getting the right one, they have to be the right human being because we do a lot of work and we’re in for a long amount of hours, so it has to be people that want to work and they also have to be good at what they do.

"I’ve had an eye on Sheez for a while, he’s done some good work at Northampton and Oldham, so when he left it presented an opportunity to get him in for a few days.

"I spoke it over with Gary (Sweet, chief executive) and we think he will be a really good addition.

"He will take a lot of things off Chris Cohen, who is doing a Dolly Parton nine to five at the minute, so it’ll help and it is someone we trust, someone who knows the environment and knows the fans and the club as well.

"That is where he probably had the edge over people as well so we’re delighted.”

With assistant manager Mick Harford now resuming his duties with Luton following his course of treatment for prostate cancer, when asked if that was it for new arrivals behind the scenes, Jones added: “It’s too many now with Mick back and Alan here, they will all be fighting just for a passing drill!

"We have a really good environment here, I’ve got experience with Paul Hart and Mick around, the goalkeeping department is in really good shape and then we have a relatively young, learning manager and then two coaches under that who are chomping at the bit every day to make the players better.

"The environment is very hungry, very driven and that’s what you want.

"It’s important we have that but we won’t be having anyone else come in because it will probably be too many.

"We’re right at the edge now of everyone being productive so we’re in a good place.”