Izzy Brown says he’s not thinking about Chelsea or playing in the Premier League because he’s loving life on loan at Luton and he’s focused on what’s best for the Hatters.
The 22-year-old, who arrived on a season-long loan from Stamford Bridge, scored his first Hatters goal last night to beat Charlton 2-1 and secure a first victory after five straight Championship defeats, which lifted Luton out of the relegation zone and three points clear.
Brown also completed 90 minutes after picking up a hamstring injury before the international break, and he’d already shown his importance to Town by turning in top creative stats as top of the tree for assists in the division.
There’s still a case to say his best is yet to come as he finally emerges from an injury nightmare that curtailed 18 months of his career with a cruciate knee ligament injury and hamstring issues.
And with his former Chelsea youth team peers Tammy Abrahams and Mason Mount now making waves in the Londoners’ first team squad, benefitting from their transfer embargo, there’s never been a better time for a youngster to play for the Blues, not that Brown is paying it much mind.
“Tammy, Fikayo (Tomori) and Mason they’re all doing amazingly well. It finally shows you can trust the young players to go and produce what they’ve been doing,” he said, adding: “This season was all about playing games and getting minutes under my belt. Now that I’m doing that, I don’t really want to focus on the future.
“I just need to focus on what’s going on a the moment. I’m not really too worried about the Premier League, I’m just focused on Luton and I want what’s best for Luton. I want to stay up in this league, so that’s what I’m focused on.”
He still has contact with Chelsea however, through former Blues striker Tore Andre Flo, who now acts as Premier League club’s technical coach for their loan players.
Brown said: “Every game he’s messaging me, sending me clips and things like that about what I need to improve on and what I’ve done well, so it’s good that I’ve got Tore there to give me good feedback.”
His current situation is perhaps also helped by the fact that Luton boss Graeme Jones rates him so highly, even going so far to say that Brown is vital for the club’s ambitions to avoid relegation.
He said: “I love playing here and I love playing for this manager. He gives me so much confidence and I really feel like, on the pitch, I can show everyone what I can do.”
On the praise he’s been getting the England youth international added: “It’s not that I don’t listen to it, but I don’t let it get to my head because there’s more than me in this team. If Pelly (Ruddock Mpanzu) didn’t score we wouldn’t have won the game (against Charlton).
“For the manager to give me that confidence to go and show what I can do is unbelievable. There’s 11, 15, 20 great players here and they all contribute in different ways so, as a team, we’re solid but, individually, I just need to keep improving and keep learning and we’ll be fine this season.”
Town had slipped into the bottom three for the first time this term 24 hours before beating Charlton, by virtue of Middlesbrough claiming a point. But regardless of that, the pressure was mounting on the Hatters after their worst run of league results for three years.
“It was a must-win,” Brown said, adding: “There were no questions asked, we knew we had to win the game and if we didn’t we felt like we would’ve been in trouble and the confidence would’ve gone.
“Now we’re just going to kick on and hopefully the results will come, the performances will follow and we’ll be good.”
