Joe Kinnear Luton Town manager at Kenilworth Road in 2002

Luton Town and ‘Manager Idol’: Recalling the phone-in competition that let supporters vote for their preferred manager

August 8, 2023 Sports 21 Views

Luton Town haven’t always been a club to do things the conventional way, as evidenced by their 30 point deduction at the beginning of the 2008/09 season, but the summer of 2003 highlighted the madness.

When a consortium headed up by John Gurney took over Luton Town in May 2003, the first thing they did was sack Joe Kinnear – despite the popular manager leading the club to ninth in the second tier after returning the Hatters to the division the season before.

Fans were dismayed, threatening to boycott renewing their season tickets in protest against the decision.

John Gurney and his mysterious consortium weren’t willing to bend, though, and came up with an idea they were sure would bring in revenue and get fans back on side.

Luton would host a Manager Idol competition to decide the new boss, with supporters calling a premium phone line to cast their votes. The three final contenders were the recently sacked Kinnear, Steve Cotterill and Mike Newell, who’d left Hartlepool United.

On the day of the announcement, Kinnear claimed he’d had no contact with the club – with Cotterill ruling himself out of the race, it left Newell as the last man standing. Luckily enough, a late flurry of votes saw Newell gazump favourite Kinnear and the, er, competition was saved.

Luton Town manager Joe Kinnear at Kenilworth Road 2002

Joe Kinnear had just been sacked as manager, but was still included in the fan vote (Image credit: Getty Images)

“The whole thing was a farce,” Luton Town supporter Steve Moore tells FourFourTwo.

“There had been protests calling for Gurney to give Kinnear his job back, so it was no surprise he was an early frontrunner. We knew there could only be one winner and that was Mike Newell.

“Manager Idol was like all Gurney’s ideas, a desperate attempt to appease the fans, but we could see through it. We tried to force him out any way we could, but Gary Sweet, who’s now our CEO, and the rest of the supporters’ trust worked out how to get him out. It’s incredible what he managed to do.”