Message is clear from Hatters boss as he targets promotion back to the Premier League
Luton boss Rob Edwards has made it quite clear to his players that he wants a swift return to the bright lights of the Premier League.
The 40-year-old former Welsh international had experienced the top tier of English football as a player, making 10 appearances when at Aston Villa and Blackpool, before a first taste of it as a manager when leading the Hatters to the promised land back in 2022. Although they couldn’t
extend their stay beyond a single season, relegated to the Championship, having had his taste buds whetted, Edwards is determined for another crack at it, as he said: “We want to be back. I do, I keep saying to the lads ‘I want to be back there’, and I know they do as well.
“And let’s have it right, in the end we didn’t get enough points, we didn’t stay up and we did come up short in the end. We can talk about a number of reasons why, but we want to go back and we want to be stronger for it. There is a long way to go before that. Yes it was an exciting year and we learned a lot. Now we’ve got to respect where we are, keep our feet on the floor, but work incredibly hard to try and get back, and that’s the message every single day at the moment.”
Edwards also believes his desire is shared firmly by his players too, especially now they have seen just what the top flight has to offer, continuing: “Last year I will happily admit, we were still on cloud nine, there was a great buzz around the place and we were all really happy with the achievement that we’d had, but we were going into the unknown.
“We’ve all experienced it and we know what it’s about, so we want to get back there. I would say there is a focus, a hunger around, I can feel it. Again, we can’t say we are just going to do it, we can’t talk like that, but it feels different. We know what we are about, we know how to play, we know what we want to do, and we want to get back there. There is a different feel to this time last year, and I like it.”
The last time Town went up, it was a promotion against all the odds, as with one of the smallest budgets in the division, they managed to finish in third place, then win the play-off final at Wembley with a penalty shoot-out victory over Coventry City. Knowing what it takes to win a
promotion from the second tier, and having had their coffers boosted by the riches of the top flight ensuring they can compete financially, Edwards insists Town are even better equipped this time, adding: “I do feel we’re in a better position now than going into the Premier League season. We did a lot of work last season, a lot of recruitment, we changed, we evolved as a team, we’ve got a really strong identity now.”
