In one ice-breaking sentence, Rob Edwards was able to articulate why Hatters fans shouldn’t place too much stock in his short-lived last job at arch-rivals Watford, as Luton’s new boss also explained that “there’s a real plan” at Kenilworth Road.
Town today named the 39-year-old as the man to take over from Nathan Jones, 53 days after his Vicarage Road employment was unceremoniously terminated after 11 games.
Unlike his counterpart at the Hornets, there were no proclamations from Luton chief executive Gary Sweet that Luton will support their latest appointment “come hell or high water”, as CEO Scott Duxbury did this summer.
But that’s because it’s not the Hatters’ style. They’ve also been tracking Edwards for some time and he’ll get time to make his mark at Kenilworth Road.
Though, being a former employee of Watford comes with its own scrutiny this far up the M1. There’s only ever been one manager to have taken charge of both clubs, and that was before the war.
“It’s not like I’m a Watford legend!” joked Edwards, adding: “(I’m) a little more infamous I suppose as the shortest spell. But no, it was an opportunity to work at a level, a club that had been in the Premier League. Things went quickly and it didn’t happen. It didn’t work out for different reasons.
“But this, now, it just feels right. The conversations I’ve had with Gary, some of the staff and obviously the board, I think we all feel that we’re on the same page.
“There’s a real plan here at the football club and I’m really thankful for them giving me this chance and looking beyond where I’ve just been.
“I know, as fans of the club as well, that would’ve been a difficult decision. So I’m really thankful for that chance.
“This is always the case. If you go into a new place, you’ve got to win supporters over. Results and performances will do that. That’s got to be our aim.”
Asked if he has something to prove after his Watford sacking, Edwards said: “I think that’s always the case. OK, the tenure was short, too short, but we’ve always got something to prove.
“We’re all competitive, we all want to win and improve and build something. And I feel that this club gives me the perfect opportunity to show that and do that.
“I think the biggest thing to do that is support and time. I feel I’ll get that here.”
Sweet insists it was Edwards’ success at Forest Green Rovers that is the real metric of the new Luton manager’s potential.
Edwards, of course, took the Gloucestershire side to the League Two title and scooped the Manager of the Year award before the managerial merry-go-round down the road scooped him up and spat him out.
“We’re going into this with eyes wide open,” said Sweet of appointing a former Watford manager.
“Has it been a topic of conversation? Of course it has. Absolutely. It would be foolish not to take that challenge and it’s a little bit of a challenge.
“I don’t think it’s a massive one though. At the end of the day, we’ve had an awful lot of players that have played at both clubs and people and staff that we’ve had.
“But I can tell you, the one thing in recent years, and maybe the only thing, I’ve been most impressed with, with Watford, is their bold appointment at the time of Rob Edwards.
“Speaking for Rob, if I may, if I was the Forest Green manager at that time, and I was approached by a club that has just got relegated from the Premier League to apply itself to get back into the Premier League from the Championship, I’d be a fool not to look at that and take it. It was a terrific opportunity.
“Our supporters, we’ve got faith that 99 per cent of them will look at it and say that Rob Edwards had no previous relationship with Luton before, so why would that not be the case?
“So, just because he’s been there in his short stint, it’s so short, but the relationship wasn’t built up to the extend that it’s going to be here.
“When we met Rob, we just felt that his nature and his personality was so us as well, that we just felt very comfortable with it.
“The way Rob’s career has progressed, had he not have hade that move to Watford, we would probably still be sitting here, as it’s really that identification of what he did at Forest Green that was so impressive to us, and the way he got those players playing.
“So we can’t wait to get him started and all I say to everybody is to make him feel welcome, make his staff feel welcome and get behind the lads when we start back at Middlesbrough and Millwall at home.”
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