Luton CEO Gary Sweet has admitted that Rob Edwards had “struggled” with some events over the last year while manager of the Hatters but that, though the club stuck by him, the current run of four defeats ultimately sealed his fate.
Yesterday’s exit by mutual consent brought Edwards’ two-year spell at Kenilworth Road to an end. It was one that came with historic, fantastic highs – in reaching the Premier League – but also traumatic lows.
Club captain Tom Lockyer twice suffered heart problems on the pitch, in the Championship play-off final, and then in December 2023 when he suffered a heart attack at Bournemouth.
Relegation straight back to the Championship then followed and this season began with expectations of a promotion push, but sees Town languishing two points above the relegation zone.
The Hatters won just once in the league on their travels in the whole of 2024. Then Monday night’s defeat at Queens Park Rangers was a fourth on the spin but also a tenth straight loss on the road. It proved the last dance for Edwards.
“The decision to part company with Rob, was a tough one,” said Sweet, adding: “How long have you got? I could speak all the time about Rob the person, the character, the bond we had, fantastic things he did for this football club.
“A lot of those things have been written but the relationship that we had and still have is very good. And I’m not talking about necessarily just me or the person. This is about Rob and the football club.
“Rob and Richie (Kyle) and Trolls (Paul Trollope). Rob and Mick (Harford), and Rob and the board, Rob and everybody. He’s a class individual and everybody here loved him.
“It’s hard to let go somebody of that stature, that genuine quality, that person with such capability, by the way. He’s an immense coach, manager of people and, he won’t mind me saying he lost his way a little bit over recent weeks.
“He struggled a little bit with a couple of incidents that have occurred over the last few months, a year or so, actually, which don’t really need digging up now, but he was challenged a bit by a number of those things.
“I think, maybe he lost his way little bit at the times. but Rob is still Rob. Rob will always be Rob and Rob will get back to a real positive frame of mind at some point.
“I said to him yesterday, ‘I really hope that, one day, very soon, that it will be in the away dugout’.”
In November, after the international break following a 5-1 rout at Middlesbrough, Edwards himself revealed he’d been working on some personal issues, but that he’d returned refocused on trying to turn around Town’s form. But Sweet today clarified that the manager had never offered his resignation, as had been speculated.
Reflecting on that period, the CEO added: “It’s important that the world sees that we stand by people. We do. The people that work for this football club are most important people. They’re really important throughout. Doesn’t matter what department or what area you work in, your contribution is really important.
“And that relationship we have with them as the club and the supporters as well is really important. But, particularly the manager, he is the ambassador, he’s the one that represents the club.
“So we did everything possible to try and support him in every way but, ultimately, it didn’t quite work out.”
It was after the Middlesbrough game where many fans thought they’d seen Edward manage his last game for the club, not only due to the scoreline, but because of the reaction of the travelling Town fans and then his post-match interviews where he said he did not want to be a “divisive figure”.
A two-week international break followed, plus internet rumours of his exit, but Edwards returned to take charge of a 1-0 victory at home to Hull.
Sweet said: “There’s been a lot of talk about that Middlesbrough game. I can just maybe take the opportunity to clarify one or two things. Not once did Rob ever try to quit or resign or anything. Let’s clear that up.
“He’s not a quitter. even when he was feeling low, he’s not a quitter. And that’s the true testament of the sporting characteristic he’s got, and the desire to win. After the Middlesbrough game, no, there was no real thought that we would we would severe ties then, no.
“We stick by our people and, ultimately, I know that there’s a lot of supporters that get frustrated by that, but that’s who we are. We stand by our people and we we help support them.
“We’ve got to recognise that some individuals will go through patches of, whether it’s just poor form, bad luck or challenges in life that might affect their performance. Or a bit of all of that, whatever. But we give them the opportunity to recover from that, and we did that.
“I actually think there was a period of time, where we really thought that was that was going to happen. Perhaps after Derby, things were looking quite good. This last four games, I think just made it very difficult for us. And all of a sudden we’ve come back down into that relegation zone and it’s probably forced our hand a bit. I think that that term ‘mutual’ was spot on.”
Sweet revealed that yesterday was a “very emotional” farewell, where he and Edwards addressed the staff and the players.
“It was a good parting, if there was such a thing,” said the chief executive, adding: “We, the board at the club, we think that the timing was right.
“Always a bit difficult, especially if you’re in a transfer window. But, putting the transfer window aside, then I think the timing was right.”
Sweet added: “I think what Rob probably wants to do is to really go and have a great holiday with the family and recharge, start to recharge and rebuild that energy that he had so much of.
“And this is the thing. Rob’s a real incredible people person. And he takes on everybody’s emotions and everybody’s feelings and that can drain when you have so many emotions and feelings, during the past few months of where we’ve gone through relegation, had so many injuries. And when we’ve had, I don’t want to bring Locks (Tom Lockyer) up, but situations like that, that create a huge, emotional, environment that we’ve got in this building.
“It’s not a clinical one. The players are great lads and Rob knows every single one of them individually and knows the families and knows everything about them. And then he takes everything on.
“It’s something that he should be proud of. It’s a great quality to have. And when we’re looking for somebody else, we want that quality if we can. There aren’t many like him. So, yeah, I think it’s been quite draining for him.”
Asked if there was ever a point where the club tried to stop Edwards taking so much of the additional weight on his shoulders, Sweet said: “We knew that would be fighting a losing battle because it’s within him and you can’t change that character. I wouldn’t want to.”
Explaining how the last week has panned out, ending in Luton and Edwards parting ways, Sweet said: “(It was a) tough game on Monday, basically. You see a game sometimes, and you see that the team, the manager is doing everything possible to try and get something from the game.
“During that game we could see a pattern of bad luck that just occurs. I’m not putting all this down to bad luck, of course, but there has been a real pattern of unfortunate events during a few games over recent times, which has ultimately proved that we’re probably not quite got what we deserve.
“If you look at the last ten away games, for example, we definitely deserved some points in that. Look, it’s not good enough. But sometimes you look at a game and you just feel the luck certainly isn’t going our way, and it’s up to us to change it.
“And that was ultimately, when the board and myself got together and made that decision.”
On the conversation that confirmed Edwards’ exit, Sweet said: “It was very reasonable. The last time I saw him, we were hugging out here yesterday. These guys will tell you, who work a lot more in football than than I have, about about the events that happened yesterday, which were quite unique. It was a very, very sad conversation. Very, very, very sad. And brought tears to our eyes. It was emotional.
“I don’t want to quit either, by the way. You talk about Rob not being a quitter, I didn’t want to quit on him. The board didn’t want to quit on him. We wanted to back him as much as we possibly can.
“It’s just the way we got to that time where, a culmination of things, where we’re in that relegation zone. We had lost four games and we were just about in time for the January window to do something.
“But because we want to be active in the January window, we want the manager who is going to manage us for the rest of the season to be involved in that. So, it was about the right time.”
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