Edwards says Luton ‘not going to go mental,’ with Premier League cash splash

Rob Edwards says Luton won’t go “mental” in the Premier League and risk huge sums of cash to stay up and put the club back in the kind of jeopardy that the current fan owners rescued it from 15 years ago. 

Town’s 6-5 penalty shootout victory over Coventry City at Wembley on Saturday booked their place in the top flight for the first time in 31 years, completing one of the biggest sporting comeback stories of all time after being in the non-league nine years ago.

That was courtesy of a never since matched 30-point penalty for the financial wrongdoings of previous owners that brought three administrations in nine years at the start of this century. 

Promotion to the Premier League is expected to be worth around £150million to the Hatters, which chief executive Gary Sweet had said is a “life-changing opportunity”. 

But with a brand-new stadium on the horizon in 2026 and their not-too-distant past in firmly in their memories, Edwards said: “Our board won’t allow our club to ever be in the kind of position that we were in just over a decade ago, so we’re not going to go mental.

“So what we’ll have to do is play to our strengths, which is what we’ve tried to keep doing since we’ve come in, so of course, there’ll be some change and they’ll be some recruitment, of course, we want to be competitive.

“We realise that it’s going to be the biggest challenge ever, we get that, the best managers in the world are all in the Premier League, you’ve got the best players, we know how tough it is.

“I think we can enjoy next season as well, and what it does do, securing promotion to the Premier League, it probably secures our club for a long, long time, as we will be sensible with how we go forward with it.”