Nathan Jones says Luton have a promotion plan but believes that the club’s continued progression doesn’t hinge on it, while falling short this term will not see the Hatters suffer the same fate as Barnsley.
Luton know that victory at home in today’s final game of the regular season against Reading – who have just avoided the trap door – will secure their spot in the end-of-season shoot-out for the Premier League.
Regardless of the outcome, they’ve already achieved their chief goal of year on year progression, as they can only finish eighth at worst, which will be an improvement on last term’s mid-table finish. But Luton have loftier ambitions now they’re in pole position for the play-offs.
“It’s an amazing achievement, but it’s an evolution plan that we’ve had for a little while,” said Jones on the prospect of securing a top six spot.
“It’s not like, suddenly, some meteoric thing has happened out of nowhere, this has been a long time in planning. There’s been a lot of things put in place since 2020 took over. There’s been progression.
“I took over in 2016 and took that progression on, or my staff did, and that’s been a continuation. A lot of people have been involved in that.
“As a one-off season, it’s been a fantastic season, but a lot of work has gone into that prior, to put us in a position where we can challenge.”
Still, to many observers outside of Luton Town, they are the surprise package, largely due to their budget being in the bottom three in the Championship. Last term it was Barnsley, as the Tykes – who were promoted from League One with Town – reached the Championship play-offs but lost in the semi-finals.
This season, has been equally dramatic, but for the wrong reason as the Yorkshire side have just been relegated back to the third tier, finishing bottom of the division below Derby County who were docked 21 points at the start of the campaign.
That is a scenario Jones does not envisage for Luton, should their promotion push end prematurely. The manager said: “The good thing about us, there’s never any trap doors. We’ve progressed year in, year out. We said this time last year, when we finished in the top half of the table, that we wanted progression.
“People said, ‘well, don’t progress too high, because then you’ve got to progress again’. We believe thoroughly in our progression and it’s not like, suddenly, we’ll have one good season and then fall off a cliff.
“With the greatest of respect and god’s will, I don’t believe that, whatever happens in these remaining games of the season, that we’ll be like Barnsley next year and will be going down next year.
“We are building. No trap doors, progressions every year and that’s been the key to everything.
“We don’t overspend, we don’t take massive loans, we develop our own players, build our own structures and that’s what we have.
“That’s the good thing, so whatever happens on Saturday, or whenever, the worst we can finish is eighth. Then, next season, we’d have to finish seventh, because that’s the way we are.”
