Manager Rob Edwards says he’s “not offended” by Luton being billed as favourites for relegation from the Premier League – but that those views help his side.
Town are preparing to make their Premier League debut tomorrow at Brighton and Hove Albion after winning promotion via the Championship play-offs.
It will be the first time in 31 years that the Hatters have played in the top flight, despite being one of the clubs that founded the Premier League.
After missing out on the inaugural season of the rebranded competition, those intervening decades saw the club almost go out of business three times. They suffered three consecutive relegations and a never-repeated 30-point penalty that effectively knocked them out of the Football League in 2008.
Five years in the non-league followed but since dragging themselves out of the fifth tier in 2014 they’ve gone on a remarkable journey that has seen them become the only team ever to get promoted from the non-league all the way through the pyramid to the Premier League.
However, they’re already most people’s choice for an immediate return to the Championship.
Edwards said: “I’m not offended by that because I think that’s the norm, whoever gets promoted out of the play-offs, I would say.
“I understand it. We’re Luton Town. It’s the first time we’ve been in the Premier League, we are a small club and we came up through the play-offs, so I think that’s the norm.
“So, cool, people can write us off. We believe in ourselves and what we’re about.
“I think we had a lot of that last year anyway, in terms of promotion. There was not much chat about Luton throughout those last few months when we were there.
“I think that helps us, to be honest. People can keep writing us off. That’s fine.”
Edwards only joined Luton in November, replacing Nathan Jones. This time last year, he was newly installed as boss of arch-rivals Watford, but he quickly built a rapport with the Hatters fans.
He said: “The fans are the most important people at any football club. They are the most important to me, they’re here before us and they’ll be here after us. They’ve been through some really bleak times in the past, so hopefully they can enjoy these moments because they deserve it.”
Edwards admitted he is both “excited” and “nervous“ about the big kick-off tomorrow against a Brighton side which qualified for Europe for the first time in their history.
“This is the highest level,” he said, adding: “We can talk about Champions League and international football but in terms of a league, this is as good as it gets.
“It’s been an ambition of mine to try and work at this level. Unfortunately, I wasn’t good enough as a player to remain, I had ten games in the Premier League, so I’m hoping to get more than that as a manager.
“It’s something that I’m extremely proud of. I’m looking forward to every single challenge. It’s going to make me better. It’s going to make us better as a group as well.
“We’re going to learn a lot and we have to learn quickly, but it’s where we want to be. It’s where, I think, everyone wants to be.
“We finished third in the table last year and we won the play-offs, so we deserve to be here and we’re going to give it a good crack.”
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