John Mitchell

Chief Executive

John Mitchell is one of those rarities in football administration ­ a board director who enjoyed a successful playing career of his own.  John had initially joined the board of Luton Town in the summer of 2000 at the age of 48, less than 20 years after his final League appearance as a highly-rated striker in the colours of Fulham and Millwall.  He hails from St. Albans and went into business after his playing career finished.  Before his arrival, his name was often mentioned when there was talk of possible consortiums and new blood being introduced to the Luton board.

One of his special responsibilities as a new director of the club was said to be the matter of ground relocation and supporters will be encouraged to learn that John places huge importance on community involvement in Luton Town.  This was amply illustrated by the appointment of Ricky Hill as manager, which John said was partly for football reasons and partly with the community in mind.

He rose to prominence in the early 1970s, appearing for his local club St. Albans City as a teenager.  A number of clubs looked at him and the shrewd former Luton boss Alec Stock signed him for Fulham in February 1972 as a 19-year-old.  He played around 50 or so first-team games in his first two seasons, many of them alongside well-known names such as Bobby Moore, Alan Mullery and ex-Hatters favourites Viv Busby and Alan Slough.  1974-75 became a historic season for Fulham and John Mitchell as he was a central figure in all the drama as The Cottagers shocked everyone by bravely battling their way to the FA Cup final for the only time in the club's history.  They certainly did it the hard way, taking nine games to reach a semi-final with Birmingham City.  For this big game, John was called into the side to replace the injured Jimmy Conway and he responded with a fantastic long-range dipping volley to put the Londoners ahead.  Birmingham equalised with a scrappy goal and the game went to a replay at Maine Road.

This would be Fulham's 14th cup tie of the season and John became the hero when he burst through the middle of the defence and the ball ricocheted home off his stomach to give Fulham a dramatic 1-0 win.  The scenes were amazing and even the usually calm Bobby Moore raced the length of the pitch to embrace the goal scorer.

John wore the No.7 shirt in the Wembley final with West Ham United and almost opened the scoring only for Mervyn Day to make a great save.  Later on, two goals by Alan Taylor ended Fulham's hopes and the Hammers took the cup.  After a spell playing alongside George Best and Rodney Marsh in the Fulham attack, John's stay at Craven Cottage ended in the summer of 1978 after 169 League appearances and 56 goals.

Millwall smashed their club record by paying £100,000 for him and put him in attack alongside former Luton forward John Seasman.  He had mixed fortunes at The Den, experiencing relegation in 1979 and one or two spells out of the team, eventually amassing 18 goals in 83 League appearances.  His League career came to an end at Millwall in the summer of 1981, by which time former Luton midfielder Peter Anderson had taken over as player-manager.

John stayed with Luton as a director for 2 years, witnessing the Hatters get relegated during his first season at Kenilworth Road, but then seeing the club gain promotion during the following campaign - Luton's first promotion season for 20 years.  John left the club along with Cliff Bassett, but departed from Kenilworth Road with the best wishes for the future of both the staff and fans alike.

However, in the summer of 2004, John returned to Kenilworth Road as a director when Bill Tomlins put together a consortium to take control of the club after the Hatters had spent an entire year in administrative receivership following the brief reign of  the controversial John Gurney in the summer of 2003.

Speaking on returning to the club as part of the new consortium, John said, "We wanted football people from day one, we didn't just want people here because it is a property.

"In terms of finance, the first part was to promise we had the finances to take the club over the next year and secondly the relocation. When we first presented to the Football League, they said we needed to raise £3.7 million to take the club forward and we've done that.

"We've been working very closely with the manager, Mike Newell and director of football, Mick Harford, and our ambitions are unchanged with wanting to offer all of the out-of-contract players new deals. Mike (Newell) has released one player and has offered the other nine players new deals.

"We feel we can reduce the losses, maximise our income while still maintaining our ambitions. We have a relocation programme which we feel can take the club forward and I felt considering what the club went through last season, it was a remarkable achievement where they finished in the League, and under the circumstances it was an incredible job.

"It has been a very difficult time for the football club, and not just in recent times, but probably if you look back over the last ten years and we want stability and living within our means and we want to provide as much value and benefit to the management team so they can take the club forward.

"We have purchased the club effectively and we have set up a new company which is now up and running. The old company will see the receiver finalise the issues he's got, and then once he's done that, he'll put it into liquidation.

"The company is called Kenilworth Road Football Club Ltd., but we will change that name to Luton Town Football Club Ltd.

"The new stadium our aim is for two years and we will extradite things as quickly as possible and we've been working with two developers, so with a bit of luck, we can achieve our objective, which is the relocation within two-years.

"The planning process is what takes time and to build a 15,000-seated stadium and to give us the ability to go another 10 or 11 thousand so we can fulfill the ambitions of the club in the future, that situation comes back down to planning and it does require the support of the council and the big issue is getting the full support from the three political parties and things are looking good. The location of that land is going to be very much dependant on traffic and that is something the developer and consultants will hopefully address to take the club forward. The funding is in place and the land is there and if we can resolve the planning issues, moving within two-years is a possibility.

"We wish to assure fans that John Gurney has no hold over the club, this is a brand new company. We have no association with the old company. Our understanding having seen the agreement is he has no hold on the land for the new stadium either."

After overseeing the Hatters excellent on-the-field success in 2004-05 as they ran away with the League One Championship, John stepped down from his position with the knowledge that he had helped the club in the right direction.

However, he returned to the club in 2006 under the regime of new chairman David Pinkney, becoming the Chief Executive at Luton Town.  He quickly came under fire from supporters after the sales of key players Steve Howard, Kevin Nicholls, Carlos Edwards, Rowan Vine, Leon Barnett and Kevin Foley.  With fans blaming John for these sales - and the club relegated from the Championship in 2006-07 - there were turbulent times at Kenilworth Road.  During a home defeat to Ipswich Town, which all but sealed relegation to League One, some sections of fans chanted, "Where's the money gone?" and the police were called in to protect the board members in what became a very heated situation.

Support towards John and the new board members seems to be very split - some fans appreciating their efforts and the new infrastructure that has been put into place off-the-field, while others simply want 'Jayten' (the holding company who own the club, consisting of the board members) to leave the club.

Profile By:  Rob Hadgraft