Newell facing the sack?

Mike Newell, best manager Luton have had for a long long time, could be in big trouble.

Mike Newell has been the centre of controversy before. In January he was the centre of a scandal over corruption in the game of football, and has never been a manager to keep his feelings under control. In a lot of matchday programmes, Newell has vented his feelings over many issues, including coaching badges for managers and criticism of the club on messageboards (not our messageboard, as no one ever goes on there). This time, he may have taken two steps too far. Newell's first target this evening was the female assistant referee, Amy Rayner. Basically, her performance in the QPR match was pathetic, not only missing a couple of penalty shouts, at least one of which looked cast-iron but also getting a few offside decisions wrong (at least from my view anyway). Newell's comments were (as quoted by BBC Sport):

"She should not be here. I know that sounds sexist, but I am sexist, so I am not going to be anything other than that.

"We have a problem in this country with political correctness, and bringing women into the game is absolutely beyond belief.

"It is bad enough with the incapable referees and linesmen we have, but if you start bringing in women, you have big problems.

"This is Championship football. This is not park football, so what are women doing here? It is tokenism for the politically-correct idiots."

Undoubtedly, Newell was correct in his thoughts on Amy Rayner, because she was terrifyingly inept, as was Andy D'Urso, particularly in the first half. On women on a whole in football, perhaps Newell has generalised a little and taken things a little bit too far here. Rayner was the worst assistant referee that we've seen at Kenilworth Road for some time, but whether all women officials are of the same quality is debatable. Later on on Saturday evening, Newell launched another scathing attack, this time on chairman Bill Tomlins (quoted by Luton Today):

"I haven't spoken to him for months. You should speak to him yourself to find out why he's here and what he's doing here.

"I can't understand why he's here and what he's doing.

"He hasn't made any decisons. He hasn't done anything.

"Everything he gets into he has messed up and I'm just about fed up with it.

"I keep getting told that when we get planning permission there will be money to spend or that next week the club will change hands.

"I've had it for two years. It was easier when we were in administration because we had nothing and we just had 20 players to work with."

A Luton legend, standing next to Bill Tomlins

Apparently, an official response to Newell's comments will be made by the Luton board tomorrow. On this issue, Newell is probably more correct but unfortunately also more likely to lose his job over. The only progress made by Luton since Bill Tomlins arrived has been on the pitch, progress that can be credited to Mike Newell rather than Tomlins. With the new ground situation, if anything we have just gone backwards. We have found out we can't build on Junction 10 and now we are looking at Junction 12 as a possible site. We are also a team punching above our weight in terms of facilities and the ground in this division. We urgently need a new ground, but this urgency doesn't seem to be matched in the chairman and board of directors. The fans also have absolutely no idea what's going on with the ground. For fans living in Luton, perhaps things aren't as bad, but for those of us outside Bedfordshire, we have no idea when a decision is going to be made, and I suspect all Luton fans in Bedfordshire don't know what's going on either. Newell probably isn't too happy about Bill Tomlins always referring to him as Michael as well. Either way, if Newell is right or not, Tomlins is not going to be happy with him. From a personal viewpoint, I back Mike Newell 100% in both incidents. It can be frustrating having a manager who always seems to be the centre of attention for comments, but he is definitely the best manager in my time as a Luton fan. The same can't be said of Tomlins as a chairman - I think the administrator we had in during 2003-04 was more capable and more popular. As for his comments over women, Newell is going to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute, even if he may have brought up a valid comment. I'm not saying he has and I'm not saying he hasn't, because I'm nowhere near as brave as Newell when it comes to speaking out. One thing is for certain - it won't be the dull season spent in mid-table that some of us were hoping for. We may stay in mid-table, but the chances of Newell guiding us there look slim at this moment in time.