Amari’i Bell has admitted that Luton’s final-day Championship relegation after defeat at West Bromwich Albion is still “very raw” as he prepares to leave the club.
The Hatters’ 5-3 loss at The Hawthorns condemned them to a second successive relegation — a devastating blow after a spirited late-season push for survival. Victory over Coventry in the penultimate game had put Town’s fate in their hands and lifted them outside of the bottom three for the first time since January.
Results elsewhere meant Luton needed only to match Hull City result to avoid the trap door, but they found themselves 5-1 down against Albion, which effectively saw them slump into League One on goal difference.
Bell, who will leave the Hatters after four seasons when his contract expires at the end of June, reflected on a campaign that saw Town become only the fourth club to suffer a double drop out of the Premier League.
“The final game is still very raw,” Bell said in a parting interview with the club. “The season as a whole didn’t go as planned, as anyone would have thought. The last game was disappointing because before that we had built up such good form, and everybody was relieved, everyone was confident that we would get it over the line and we didn’t, which hurts not just me but everyone.”
Bell, 31, made 157 appearances for Luton after joining in 2021 from Blackburn and was a key figure in the side that won promotion to the Premier League, but his final game saw the travelling Town fans at The Hawthorns sing “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” at the players.
Bell said: “As much as they [fans] feel, we feel so much more too, because it affects them and it affects us too – it affects our lives. It affects everybody associated with the club, really.
“We saw their pain, their frustration, their anger afterwards, but we feel a lot of that also. Even for me, after the game, it was hard to even speak to my family because it just hurt that much. It’s just not how I thought this season would go.”
The Jamaica international also reflected on some of his fonder memories from his time at Kenilworth Road, which you can watch below…
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