Luton announce second stage of internal restructure at Kenilworth Road

Luton Town have announced the second part of an internal restructure at Kenilworth Road.

Earlier in the week, the Hatters revealed a new scouting and recruitment department was to be set up with former Cambridge United, Charlton Athletic and Peterborough United defender Phil Chapple named head of scouting operations, while football data analyst Jay Socik was the head of recruitment analysis.

Following on from that, Town have confirmed that four existing members of staff will become directors with a view to 'solidifying the club’s position in the Championship and maintaining long-term progress on and off the pitch.'

A statement on the club website said: "At the executive level of the organisation, a senior team comprising of four key existing personnel has been appointed to support Chief Executive Officer Gary Sweet in his day-to-day running of the Club as part of the Club’s long-term operational plan.

"Financial controller Tom Schofield, who has been at Kenilworth Road since late 2017, becomes Finance Director and Paul Watson, who joined the club as general operations manager almost three years ago, and is now the Operations Director.

"Head of human resources Jemma Osborne arrived at the club in October 2019 with previous experience of working in football at Arsenal, and she now becomes HR Director.

"While head of commercial Chris Bell – the former Wasps rugby union player who joined from his role as Head of Partnership Delivery at the Ricoh Arena club just over a year ago – is now Commercial Director."

On announcing the appointments, Sweet added: “In the short-term, nothing much changes with our executive and club management team, it is more of an evolutionary process than revolutionary redirection as Power Court and Newlands Park become more of a reality, and my time is inevitably drawn more towards those two projects that are crucial to our future.

“The board and I feel now is the right time to create an executive team that will support me in the running of the club, with the pandemic adding to the workload of those at the top of the organisation, too.

“The four new directors are already in place, doing their jobs on a day-to-day basis, but will now provide greater leadership in these core areas to help keep the club progressing both on and off the pitch as we look to maintain and continue our ambitious development.”