Townend- Football's Happy Wanderer

TOWNEND TAKES CHARGE AT LUTON



Former Leeds United and England centre-back Josh Townend has taken charge at Blue Square Premier side Luton Town in his first role as manager.

The 45-year-old played for Leeds from 1982 to 2002, being a part of the side that won the old second division title in 1990, first division title in 1992 (before it became the Premier League) and the Community Shield (then the Charity Shield) in 1992. He was also part of the side that made it to the Champions League in 2000 and the semi-final in 2001.

At international level, he made 83 caps for England, scoring 16 goals- one of the highest goal ratios for an England centre-back. He played in Italia 90, Euro 96, France 98, Euro 2000 and World Cup 2002 in Japan/Korea. He was made captain for France 98 and remained captain until closing the curtain on his career after England's quarter-final exit against Brazil at the 2002 World Cup.

FIRST DAY AT LUTON TOWN

New Luton Town manager Josh Townend completed his first day in his new role at Luton Town. He was first introduced to his staff before sitting down with them in a 2-hour meeting discussing tactics, potential signings and who should do what.

He then went for another 2-hour meeting with the chairman-who proved to be a colourful character. He revealed the details of the contract to Townend- £625 a week until June 2013- as well as the fact that the minimum expectation for the forthcoming season would be to win the league, despite working without a transfer budget.

After lunch with his employers and employees, he headed to the training ground to meet his team. Just has he arrived, he saw who his most important player would be as centre-back Gary Pilkington absolutely annihilated Jamie Hand with a firm but fair sliding tackle.

After a long day at work, he then met the press. He had this to say:

"I'm absolutely delighted to be here. I know what the chairman expects of me and I have made it clear to the lads what I expect of them"

"We all want a year of success which constitutes going back up to league two. We'll see where we go from there but that promotion is the main aim for now"

LUTON SIGN CASALINUOVO

Luton Town have today revealed the signing of Argentine striker Damian Casalinuovo. This took a few fans aback as none of them have heard of him before and Townend is only 30 hours into his new role. He explained it like this:

"I know Damian from his loan spell at Dundee United. He impressed me there when my former Leeds counterpart Lucas Radebe took me to see him. After that game I was intrigued and wanted to see more. At the back end of last season whilst he was at Hamilton, I told him I wanted the Luton job and told him what I wanted to do. He seemed impressed and told me to give him a bell when we were good to go so I did"

LUTON PRE-SEASON PART 1- TRANSFERS

IN:
Damian Casalinuovo(ST)-...Free Agent
Jamie Smith (AMC)-........Brighton (Loan)
Oscar Jansson (GK)-.......Tottenham (Loan)
Stuart O'Keefe (MRC)-.....Crystal Palace (Loan)
Joe Whight (DL)-..........Ipswich (Loan)
Matteo Alberti (AMR)-.....QPR (Loan)
Jason Banton (ML).........Liverpool (Free)

→ This post was edited by joshleedsfan (2012-08-17 00:21, 9 months ago)

PRE-SEASON PART 2- FRIENDLIES

Luton 3-0 Luton Reserves
Damian Casalinuovo (3)

Llanelli 1-1 Luton
Paul Carden (1)

Harrogate 0-4 Luton
Collin Samuel (1), Danny Crow (1), Joanathan O'Donnell (1), Amari Morgan-Smith (1)

Bishop's Stortford 2-1 Luton
Alex Lawless (1)

Eastleigh 1-7 Luton
Stuart Fleetwood (2), Stuart O'Keefe, Robbie Wilmott (2), Amari Morgan-Smith (1), Paul Carden (1)

Millwall 2-1 Luton
Danny Crow (1)

Luton 0-5 Man Utd

i reckon u will do a good job at luton, good luck!

HATTERS HELD AT RACECOURSE

Wrexham 1-1 Luton Town
Boden 45+2,Smith 52

Wrexham: Maxwell (C), Darville, Creighton, Knight-Percival, Ashton, Speight, Harris, Fowler (Clarke 78), Carayol (Obeng 72), Wright (Tolley 45), Boden

Luton: Jansson, Osano, Gleeson, Antwi, Whight, Alberti (Kissock 67), Keane (Hand 79), O'Keefe, Banton (Howells 67), Smith, Casalinuovo

Unused subs: Tyler, Fleetwood

Injured: Banton, Hand, Fowler

Booked: Ashton, Speight

Attendance: 4,366