Exclusive: The Welshman took Luton to the Premier League in his first season in charge but is now facing up to an even bigger challenge
Rob Edwards is standing in a public park in Luton. In front of him is a 24,500 square foot message painted on the grass.
“Pundits prepare to eat your hats. Luton Town FC has landed,” it cheekily reads and it will be highly visible from the air over the next two weeks on the flight path to Luton Airport, who have organised it.
“How do I feel about it?” the Luton Town head coach says, laughing. “It just a bit of fun, no?”
And it is. As will be Luton’s return to the Premier League. They are determined to enjoy themselves and Edwards, ahead of Luton’s first ever Premier League match at Brighton on Saturday, declares it is part of “embracing” the experience of being in the top flight amid the expectation – from said pundits – that it will be followed for “little old Luton” by immediate relegation.
Luton know they are up against it and are everyone’s favourites, with Sheffield United, to be relegated straight back to the Championship.
“Of course,” Edwards says. “I understand we will be favourites to go down. Most of the time, if not all of the time, the team that gets promoted through the play-offs is favourite to go down. There’s nothing different there. I am not upset with that, it’s just the norm and I get why.
“We are one of the smallest teams to ever get promoted. We have never been in the Premier League before. It is like David versus Goliath. It is. But I want to embrace that.
Luton has a message for the rest of the Premier League Credit: Telegraph Sport /David Rose
“Last season we weren’t expected to get promoted. Towards the end it was ‘Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough’ and then ‘oh look, Luton have done it!’ So it probably works in our favour to be honest. It takes the pressure away. In-house we will have our own expectations, our own demands and we will talk about that. I understand why people are thinking what they are thinking. I would be thinking the same from the outside.”
‘It is possible to ride that wave’
There has been a neat line from Luton’s chief executive Gary Sweet, who has likened the task ahead, given the size of the clubs they will be playing and the resources they have, to facing a tidal wave without a surfboard.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it? I read that as well and I thought ‘phew, that sounds tough!’” Edwards says with another raucous laugh before pausing and adding: “But it is possible to ride that wave!
“I think it is because we believe we can because we believed we could last year. It was almost the impossible last year. We had the third, fourth-smallest budget [in the Championship] and we achieved something incredible, finished third in the league. We won the play-offs. We deserve to be here and so let’s go and show people what we can do at this level.”
It is remarkable that Luton are even in this position and their achievements should hearten any football fan – and give them hope that, one day, their club can do it.
Promotion to the Premier League – the greatest moment in the history of Luton Town Credit: Reuters/Carl Recine
This week Luton signed Ross Barkley on a free. To put their rise in perspective, when the 29-year-old scored his first Premier League goal 10 years ago, for Everton, Luton had just kicked off their campaign in the Conference, losing 1-0 away to Stockport County before beating Salisbury FC.
Since they were last in the top division, getting relegated in 1992 just as the Premier League was forming, Luton have been in administration three times, close to going out of business, have been deducted 40 points in total and were still non-league just five years ago.
That narrative and the “old school” (to use Edwards’ phrase) uniqueness of their Kenilworth Road stadium will be rehearsed time and again throughout this season as will the vast financial disparity they face. Will it feel patronising?
Luton’s stadium has a certain old school charm to it
“No, we have to deal with it and we will play along with it as well,” Edwards says. “It is ‘little old Luton’ and that’s fine. That’s what people will call us. We have a small stadium at the moment and compared to these giants in the Premier League we are little Luton.”
‘There is a plan, there is a real identity’
Luton’s story may be extraordinary but so, also, to an extent is Edwards’. The 40-year-old former Wales international defender has coached for a decade but has been a manager for only the past two years. In that time he has won promotion from League Two with Forest Green, been poached and then quickly dismissed by Watford – and then hired by their bitter rivals Luton and gained another promotion.
“The club took a chance on me after I was sacked by our nearest and dearest and we were able to really achieve something together,” Edwards says. “So they took a risk on me and saw something in me and in my staff – in Richie [Kyle] and Trolls [Paul Trollope] - and felt we were the right fit. I feel we’ve repaid that, they have helped me and it’s been a journey together for the last 10 months or so.
“It’s been two promotions in two years which has been brilliant – and been sacked in the middle of it as well [laughs again]. I am not sure it has happened before that a manager has got sacked in the Championship and then got promoted.
“But I was incredibly proud of that, to be honest. Along with my staff it showed we had a lot of resilience, that we believed in ourselves. It was tough getting sacked. It’s not nice, there is anger there, there is embarrassment.”
After just 11 games in charge it also felt unfair.
“It’s nice that you say that but they made a decision and I wasn’t shocked,” Edwards says. “In the end I was probably just relieved because it didn’t feel right [at Watford]. But, anyway I am here now. I have loved it and it has worked really well.
“To be honest, I was lucky. We won League Two which was great but going to Watford raised my profile and my phone was ringing almost immediately after [the sacking] which was really nice. So, I was fairly confident something would happen. I know that’s not the case all the time but for whatever reason there was stuff going on and it was good to be back in a few weeks later.”
Rob Edwards and Luton are attempting Premier League survival on a comparatively tiny budget Credit: Telegraph Sport/David Rose
There is a balance to be struck. Luton are in the Premier League but are determined not to overspend. “There is a plan, there is a real identity and the club doesn’t deviate from that,” Edwards states.
There is the future to protect and not least with exciting plans to move to a new stadium at Power Court in 2026. Edwards, too, wants to think long-term.
“Now, in this world of football you never know, do you? Because people get sacked so quickly and I don’t want to talk too soon because last season, 11 games in and I have gone. But I would like to think there’s enough credit in the bank for us to go on a nice journey together for a long time,” he says.
With that in mind Luton are determined to spend but spend wisely. Their most expensive signing this summer so far is the £4 million on left-back Ryan Giles from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“The disparity is massive and that’s what Gary’s quote is all about,” Edwards says.
“But I think the average spend over the years of teams who have been promoted through the play-offs is £18 million and we are around £17 million at the moment and are probably going to do more.
“So we might be a bit above the average and I’m delighted with the backing we’ve had. I said after the final it’s not what we do; we are not going to spend double-figure millions on players – not yet anyway. It’s not in our plan. The money has gone on (£10 million improvements to) Kenilworth Road, the money has gone on Power Court. This promotion is going to help us for the next 30 years plus and not just the here and now.”
‘It goes up. It explodes’
So what will be Luton’s approach?
“In certain moments you can have a go,” Edwards explains. “If they [the opposition] have the ball you maybe have to wait a little bit more. We will always try to be aggressive but from a good shape. In the Championship you can take more risks and we were very brave without the ball but in this league you can’t really do that. We are going to have to be a bit more compact and press from a more intelligent shape.
“We still want to be brave. I don’t want to ever park the bus, the metaphorical bus, but I know there might be 10, 20, 30, even 40 minutes when we might be forced there and we are just going to have to deal with it. But we still want to have a go. We still want to retain a threat.”
As a young coach he is not afraid to ask for advice. Edwards will draw om his time in the Premier League with Blackpool in 2010-11, under Ian Holloway, and also the experiences of his friend, the Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper and not least how he coped with long runs last season without a win – and the scrutiny.
Cooper told Edwards: “Rob, it goes up. It explodes. Be ready for it.
Edwards adds: “There will be tough times. There could be tough months. There will be tough months. But I am all right talking about that; that’s fine. It’s about how are we going to deal with it.
“We have to believe in what we can do at home, in particular. Kenilworth Road is going to be a big thing for us this year and we are going to have to make sure we use the ‘Kenny’ to our advantage.”
Why is it so special?
“It’s just so tight and intense and old-school,” Edwards says, again smiling. “It’s unique and it’s on top of you…. the place bounces. It bounces. And they are on top of everyone. So we have to make sure we use that for 19 [home league] games.”
It brings the final, obvious question: what is success?
“Clearly staying in the division. What we can do is prove people wrong and try to get enough points to be in this position next year and if we do we will probably be having the same conversation again! We will probably be favourites to go down again!” Edwards says, laughing.
“If it is 17th at the end of the season there will be a big party. It will be a huge success. But I want these lads to dream and to try to finish as high as possible.” And with that he adds, with a nod to the artwork on the grass: “I want them to be able to fly.”
