Rob Edwards says Luton won’t try to be like Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League, but does believe they’ve shown what can be done as a team promoted from the Championship.
Town are preparing to face the Seagulls at the Amex Stadium on Saturday as their Premier League debut after winning the play-offs last term.
When Brighton won promotion to the big time in 2017, the Hatters were still in League Two.
But while the Sussex club have set about establishing themselves in the top division, and last term qualified for Europe for the first time ever, Luton have been rising up the football pyramid as the only club ever to win promotion from the non-league to the Premier League.
Albion have often been touted as a model that Town could follow, but Edwards said: “We’re different to Brighton. I’m not going to say we’ll try to copy them, but certainly themselves and Brentford as well. There are some brilliant models there that have come up, stayed up and are now beginning to really flourish in the league as well, so it shows that it can be done.
“But we’re Luton Town. We’re not Brighton, we’re not Brentford and we’re not going to try to be. We have to be ourselves, but it does show that it can be done. We have to do things a bit differently here.”
Edwards’ immediate task is to try to plot how his Hatters will take points off Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton this weekend.
“I think his team and what he does are top. I think it’s a fantastic opening game for us. It’s an amazing challenge and one I’m really looking forward to.
“It’s almost as complicated a game as you could get for an opening one, especially away from home.
“It’s a great one for us as well. We’ll have to be more intelligent now in how we are, especially without the ball. We still want to try to be aggressive. We still want to brave, but we’ll have to be a lot cuter and cleverer in how we go about things, without the ball.
“We know they’re going to have more of it. They’ll have more of it against most teams. It’s respecting that but it’s then trying to capitalise on moments as well, so that’s been a big part of our work.”
