Town coach McCormack aims to create players at Kenilworth Road who can make more memories for Luton supporters

Ex-Luton midfielder Alan McCormack is relishing the opportunity of helping to create players who can add to the already rich tapestry of memories possessed by Hatters fans after joining the club’s academy staff recently.

The 37-year-old was named U13s lead coach recently, also assisting with various other age-groups as well, as he looks to help bring through the next generation at Kenilworth Road.

The popular Irishman certainly played his role in adding to the vaults stored away in the minds of Town supporters during his time as a player between 2017-19 as despite only featuring 39 times, he had a big role both on and off the field as Luton achieved back-to-back promotions, lifting themselves from League Two to the Championship.

McCormack’s debut was something to remember as well, scoring his only goal for Luton, and some strike at that, netting a thunderous right foot volley in an 8-2 win over Yeovil Town on the opening day of the 2017-18 campaign.

After leaving Luton to years later and playing for Northampton and Southend before hanging his boots up earlier this year, he is now back at Kenilworth Road and ready for his new role, saying: “I’ve always had a great link with a lot of the clubs, when you have success with clubs you do tend to get remembered a lot more.

“The two years I was here, the success we had as a club, not just as individuals, an amazing story and connection with players and with fans, that lives long in the memories.

“That (Yeovil goal) does make it a lot easier, I have to say it does, but they’re all memories now, so my job is to now create players that can give fans more memories.”

The Hatters are a club where bringing players through the academy has been part of their DNA over the years.

Names like Curtis Davies, Matthew Taylor, Leon Barnett, Matthew Upson and Jack Wilshere drip off the tongue with ease, while even recently, James Justin became Town’s record transfer fee received when he left for Premier League side Leicester City.

Although having only been back for a few months, McCormack has been impressed with the quality Luton have in their age-groups.

He said: “The talent is very, very good, we’ve got a lot of players who are on the cusp of being able to go the first team and try there, the hard part is getting them over there as the first team is very talented.

“With the Covid situation, it’s difficult to get them over, but that’s the great challenge for Forbesy (Adrian Forbes, head of coaching & player development) and myself, Dan (Walder,

professional development phase lead coach) and Paul Reid who works with the 18s and 21s together.

“Our challenge is can we get them over there for longer periods of time and get them in front of the manager’s eyes and get them impressing?

"So it is a challenge, but it’s a challenge for every club.

“There’s so many players out there who can improve your first team, the challenge is to try and get the club to take it from within, promote from there, and create sustainability that way so you’re not spending more money on players.

“That’s the way it works, that’s football and it is a challenge and it’s a good thing to look to.

“If you can get a player over there once or twice a year to progress into the first team it’s great for the long term future of the club.

“JJ is a prime example, he came through the system from a young age, he’s gone on to be a Premier League player.

“He did extremely well for the club, he’s very much remembered, so that’s the challenge now.”

McCormack is now one of a number of ex-Hatters who have coaching roles at Kenilworth Road, having been signed by current manager Nathan Jones after his departure from Brentford.

He believes it is a real boost when it comes to understanding what is needed to make it as first team player and getting his message across to the youngsters under his command.

The former Irish youth international added: "Massively it does, I think you get a lot of buy-in from players as well.

"There’s a lot of coaching that I’m learning, but at the same time I’ve got a lot of playing experience and I think when you sit and have one-to-ones with players, some of the 13s or the 21s, or 18s, you do get a lot of buy-in from them.

"It’s a lot easier to get points across because they trust you and your previous experience of playing at the levels that I've played at, so that definitely helps.

"Understanding the club, knowing what the club expect from a player, personality, work-rate, all the little bits that you can’t teach people, you’ve either got to have them or you don’t.

"Keep driving standards and knowing how the club do things is really big role and importance of coaching, so that kind of married itself together with being around the club, that is the ultimate goal.

"You’ve got Paul Benson (professional development phase coach) here as well, got Forbesy, all previous players, Kevin Pilkington (goalkeeper coach) has just come in as well, so the club has very much got a backbone of ex-players that know the cub inside out.

"They know what’s expected of not just first team, but academy players, right the way through the system.

"Even coaches that haven’t played the game, I'm learning from them massively as coaching is such a difference to playing, getting your point across on how to do things differently is very important.

"So learning off them has been amazing for me, just seeing how they work has helped me massively.

"I feel like I’ve been in the job quite a long time, but I’ve not, I’m still quite inexperienced and young in the game.

"But there's no rush, I want to do things right, I want to do things at a good pace and learn every aspect of it."