Everywhere you turn, you’ll find interesting tales, beginning with the pretty remarkable achievement of making it to the Premier League in the first place.
Luton is not a wealthy club by any means. They gain nothing from financiers with endless resources or investors who are absurdly affluent. They don’t have a lavish stadium or cutting edge practice grounds.
What they do have, though, is something special in the Premier League: a wealthy and opulent class that dominates the division. Luton has created an unbreakable spirit; as a working-class, industrial town’s club, it continues to push the boundaries of its standing based only on merit.
The club has called Kenilworth Road home since 1905, and while it may not be flashy, manager Rob Edwards believes that unity has strength as Luton prepares to play their final 13 games in the Premier League. Final moments.
Edwards sat down for an exclusive interview at the club’s Hertfordshire training site, which is accessible from the back of the Aldi supermarket, with a sparkle in his eye prior to the team’s match against Aston Villa on Saturday, which will air live on Sky Sports. He is committed to the cause of Luton Town. His players have united in their disobedience, feeling the same way as one another.
Edwards comments, “There are brilliant stories across the board,” alluding to the extensive list of hardships endured in order to make it to the nation’s top level. “Look at Tom Lockyer,” the player who passed out on the field in December while playing for Bournemouth due to a heart arrest, “he went from the National League to captaining a Premier League side and scoring a Premier League goal.” Ruddock Mpanzu, as Pelly, has been here from the beginning.
“Carlton Morris is seizing his chance at the age of 28, Elijah Adebayo is a little younger, but the same holds true. Ross Barkley has gone through many difficult years and is currently playing some of the best football of his life. There’s a feeling here, a really supportive environment.”
This is not the first, nor will it be the last, recitation of Luton’s numerous virtues. Regardless of the outcome of this campaign, their underdog narrative will live on. The fact that a team that was eliminated from the Football League as recently as 2009 is now playing in the Premier League is remarkable, almost absurd.
According to Opta, Luton has a 69% chance of finishing in the bottom three this season. How would one combat that?
Edwards confidently says, “If we’re going to go down, let’s go down swinging.” “Brentford was a bit of a turning point.” The Bees defeated Luton 3-1 in December.
“I came to the decision that ‘we have to go for this’ after we spent hours in this office analyzing the game. We’re attempting to be more like us right now, which includes pressing harder, holding the ball longer, showing more bravery, and projecting menace. We changed the shape and design since we weren’t getting the distances correct and it was too simple to fall off the sides.”
The statistics support the boss’s claims. In their last nine games, Luton has had more passes, a higher short-pass percentage, and more possession per game than they had in their first sixteen. The mentality has changed. “We’re starting to see the team I want us to be, but to evolve in the Premier League is difficult,” Edwards says.
“I’m thrilled with our progress so far, even though I wasn’t sure we could.” We didn’t play as I wanted to play last year, but the main goal was victory. It wouldn’t have worked for us at that particular moment if I had entered the room with too much pride and urged the boys to start popping the ball around in dangerous places. We’ve changed more this year than I thought.
“I know it sounds crazy, but we’re going to try to win the game by traveling to Tottenham, Arsenal, and Man City.” While we must learn from our mistakes, winning is necessary to stay in this league.”
Accept change; it’s a positive thing. That’s the mindset Luton want to adopt going into their last league games: all or nothing.
The Hatters had not given much thought to the top flight in thirty-two years. Edwards acknowledges that his team had to adjust to the Premier League over the first few months of the season, picking up the pace and measuring the increase in intensity. However, they seem to have reclaimed some of the confidence and poise that may have been obscured by the intense focus and fervor of the Premier League.
We’ve allowed ourselves an opportunity. We are engaged in combat. This year is the same as last, when we were aiming for promotion, and I took the same approach: “let’s be in the mix with five games to go.”
“Belief is prevalent in enormous measure. I’ve liked us since the Brentford game. We’ve been doing well; I’ve enjoyed our performances. We still need to improve and have given up far too many goals lately, but overall, I’m optimistic.
“Our version of winning the treble would occur if we stayed up. We have a long-term plan, we want to grow, and if we can accomplish it this year, hopefully we can keep going forward with hope.
“We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, and it’s nice if people have taken to us, it’s nice if maybe we’re some people’s second team because of how we’re trying to compete and play,” he continued in response to a question concerning the Luton Town social media love-in, in which a lot of football fans have fallen victim to the romanticism of “minnows” (Edwards, not me) mixing it up with the elite of the game.
Both the former Forest Green manager and Luton in general exude humility. a sense of warmth and contentment with their circumstances. “I want to show what we are as a team on the biggest stage and recently we’ve been doing that,” adds the 41-year-old. “We are unable to feel regret. We want to avoid having regrets when we look back. We want to win, but how we do it matters to me.”
Before the interview began, Luton’s top recruitment officer, Mick Harford, had kindly moved his desk next to Edwards’s seat. With a warm smile, he inquired, “Are you the next big thing in journalism?” as he was leaving. “Good luck with it.”
It was unclear if he was directing the final bit at Edwards or at me, but the feeling was still there. At Luton, amiability doesn’t feel very hollow as it does in some professional contexts. One of the most inspiring stories in football, if not all of sport, is their quick ascent from the National League to the Premier League in just ten short years. They were promoted under four different managers, including Edwards. A triumph of generations.
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