Rejected Peter wanted to bring back Luton Town's plastic pitch!

Peter Richardson, a teacher, has – an incredible 93 times!

The Sunderland supporter decided to apply to become manager of the England national team and every single professional Football League club in the country – including Luton Town.

He was sure his understanding of the game, passion and anecdotes about life would have been enough to land him his dream job when he wrote personally to CEO’s and owners of clubs asking to become the boss.

Stories about crashing his Punto, being willing to take cash in hand, being happy to commute 340 miles to work and his ability to do many local accents are all qualities he believed would help him secure his dream job. But was he successful? He’s now written a book called Rejected which collates all the 93 letters he wrote over several years and the varied responses he received from the football clubs.

Peter says the reply from Luton Town was “brilliant”, in fact it was one of the best ones in the book, which you’ll find at www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182368257525

I won’t spoil it by repeating all two pages of his application letter to the Hatters but one highlight includes his call for the return of the plastic pitch... “I am currently a PE teacher in a secondary school and we have a 3G AstroTurf pitch. I know how to get the best out of players on this surface... I will guarantee 69 points per season from our 23 home games. I will only need to pick up a handful of away wins and the title will be ours.”

A lengthy commute from his home in Barnsley wouldn’t be a problem for Peter who told the Hatters he would fly into Luton Airport “providing you can supply a light aircraft to collect me from my home and back”.

After unsuccessful attempts to gain a role in the Premier League, he adds: “I have now decided that I am willing to start in League 2 to show my football management skills. I have a burning desire to show the likes of Chelsea they should not have passed up on my offer.”

While some of the responses from other club’s were a bit “by the book” shall we say, Luton Town’s response showed an admirable sense of humour.

Part of it reads: “With such obvious talent, enthusiasm and people skills Luton Town considers itself extremely fortunate to have been approached by such a finecandidate for a non-existent vacancy.”

It’s a book all football fans will surely lap up – and with Hatters keeping his application “on file”, you never know what the future holds!

This is an extract of the Simply Sims column which features every Wednesday in the Luton News.