Paul Hart leaves the club

A few of those eagle-eyed had noticed Paul Hart’s absence from the dugout thus far this season, and yesterday the club announced that he has left the club.

We know the demands of working for Nathan Jones, Paul Hart knows that better than anyone so good luck to the 71-year old in I presume retirement or at least being home much more with the family.

One would assume that Hart’s family home is Bedfordshire way as well, so only adding to the time he is actually not even there. Best wishes to him, he has had an incredible career.

That means that Curtis Fleming steps up to the role of Assistant Manager, which would tell you that he and Jones have connected well during their ‘probation period.’

Fleming comes across as a steadying influence and a voice of reason. He’s another who has banked a lot of experience in the game.

A new name in the mix is James Brayne. Promoted to Set Piece and First-Team Coach, Brayne (photo) originally arrived at the club in March employed as an Individual Development Coach.

Brayne’s background is as academy coach lead at Birmingham, and he also worked within Man City’s academy too. Both very well regarded set-ups.

To the surprise of no one the club have never had a set-piece specialist coach before, so I think we will all be watching that closely. They can only improve, especially offensively.

Best of luck to James, but the coaching position changes doesn’t end there with two other new appointments, both coming from our feeder club, Luton Town.

Luke Sanders joins as Head of Sports Science, with Josh Hornby making the reverse move. Sanders has spent his entire career at Luton, and is obviously known to Jones. 

Finally, Elliott Plant is the new Strength and Conditioning Coach, who had worked at Luton for 7 years. Plant replaces Connor Derbidge, who has moved to Plymouth.

I think it is fair to say Nathan Jones has had a huge impact on the backroom staff the club have hired, and moved on in the past six months.