Text at top (next game etc)

Next Game: Oxford City At Edgar Street On Tuesday 5th November At 7.45pm

Friday, January 04, 2008

Blackwell Pays The Mortgages At Luton

Luton's dire state has been revealed in a series of TV and radio features that coincide with their FA Cup match with Liverpool.

In them manager Kevin Blackwell tells reporters that the players have been paid only two and a half weeks wages out of nine, that only due to the last round win against Nottm Forest, and that he personally had coverered the mortgages of two players: "I won't see it again. I have already written it off but that's OK. We're all in this together.

"When you are on £600 a week there's not much left once all the bills have been paid. When you're on nothing, you've got no chance. I'm asking these boys to go out and give their all for me and the club so it was the least I could do.

"The amount ran into thousands, but I couldn't let them risk losing their homes. I was ready for something like that anyway, because of the turmoil which administration had already caused."

Blackwell also noted that the club had asked Liverpool to waive their rights to a cut of the gate money - around £100,000 - but the request was refused. Luton will earn around £250,000 from the game but are losing £100,000 a week at present with the situation laid out by the manager:

"Unless a new buyer can be found in the next few days (the deadline is Monday) — and there isn't exactly a clamour — I will have to raise a further £2m and the players will have to accept a 50 per cent pay cut to survive until May."

But Blackwell knows where the blame for the situation lies: "Last January, with Luton in the bottom three of the Championship after 19 games without a win, someone in their wisdom decided to add half a million pounds to the monthly wage bill by handing out nine new contracts.

"Instead of holding fire to see how the season panned out, they said: 'Here you are, boys, new deals on Championship wages'. That's why we are in this mess now. That's why there may have to be more sales and some kids may have to be thrown in, just so we can fulfil our fixtures."