The Luton Town season preview 2023/24 has one focus: survive.
The Hatters are incredibly short favourites for the drop, but Luton will take solace from the fact that none of the last four teams to make their Premier League debut went straight back down.
Another positive omen is that none of the promoted outfits suffered relegation last term – just the fourth time that has happened during the Premier League era – which suggests that the top-flight learning curve is not what it used to be.
Expect them to carry on with the style that led them here: quick, direct attacks, attempting to win the ball high up the pitch, and a steadfast defence that conceded the second-fewest goals in the Championship last season. Don’t assume they’re reliant on a cramped and ramped-up home support, either: their away record was almost identical. FourFourTwo previews Luton's Premier League season.
Luton Town season preview 2023/24: The lesson from last year
Don’t panic. But then, they didn’t last year, either. Proving that blessings can come well-disguised, Nathan Jones’ second mid-season ditching of Luton – for Southampton this time, after Stoke in 2018/19, and despite his Hatters contract running to 2027 – prompted the Hatters to appoint Rob Edwards, a 39-year-old who had been fired by rivals Watford after fewer than a dozen games.
Under Edwards, Luton climbed from 9th to 3rd (eclipsing the 6th-place accomplishment that earned Jones his Championship Manager of the Year award the previous campaign), ended the regular league season unbeaten in 14 matches, overcame a first-leg defeat to Sunderland in the play-off semi-finals, and then held their nerve by converting all six penalties against Coventry in the Wembley shootout.
The coach: Rob Edwards
Rob Edwards arrived at Luton last November, in the third season of his entire managerial career, and quietly improved on what Nathan Jones had built. The steely mettle forged by the Welshman remains, but clothed in calm assurance; “I’m not buying that underdog stuff any more,” said Edwards in February.
Key player: Carlton Morris
Arriving in July 2022 as the club’s record signing prior to this summer, £2m man Carlton Morris served Luton’s style well with his hold-up play and physicality. He also scored a career-best 20 league goals: six with his left foot, eight with his right and six with his head. No wonder the 27-year-old is hard to contain.
The mood around Luton
Absolutely buoyant. The club’s on-pitch success seems to have taken even themselves by surprise: plans to move from Kenilworth Road to a new ground won’t come to fruition for another two years at least (necessitating expensive summer upgrades to the Kenny).
Back in the top flight for the first time since 1992 and written off from the off, they can play the role of party-poopers each week – something their fans will relish.
One to watch
Tom Lockyer has been likened to both Franco Baresi and Franz Beckenbauer by Luton coaches. While that may be a stretch, the club’s player of the year will command plenty of attention after collapsing and being taken to hospital during the Championship play-off final.
The 28-year-old Welshman, so integral to Luton’s incredible promotion, had heart surgery and has been given the all-clear to lead his team once more.
Most likely to...
Have kick-offs delayed as visiting fans take photos of the view from the away end’s stairs into people’s back gardens.
Least likely to...
Roll out the red carpet. Following viral jokes about the stadium’s way in, chief exec Gary Sweet said Erling Haaland would have to enter through “the other s**t entrance we’ve got”. Touché
The fan's view: Ben Bowdler-Thomas (@LutonAnalytics)
Last season was simply unbelievable. Last year I said we’d finish 9th and thought I was being a bit optimistic. If you were to tell me we’d lose Nathan Jones (again) and that he’d be sacked even quicker than last time, while we’d appoint Watford’s boss and go on to win the play-off final, I would have laughed in your stupid face.
The big talking point is whether Kenilworth Road will be ready to host Premier League matches. Upgrades began as soon as Coventry missed their final penalty. An away ticket to the Kenny is the hottest ticket in town.
The pantomime villain will be VAR. This will be our first season without being able to celebrate goals properly, and we have to pay a small fortune for the privilege.
Our most underrated player is Jordan Clark – although his touch and finish at Wembley will have made some rate him higher. After playing for Hyde and then Accrington, he joined us as a winger and became one of the most astute box-to-box No.8s in the Championship.
Fans think our owners are humble, forward-thinking sages. They call themselves ‘custodians’, not owners, too.
The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is that he’s hard to fault: kind, straight-talking, adaptable, tactically astute and bloody good-looking.
The active player I’d love to have back is James Justin – one of our own. He’d be our right wing-back and cover any position in the back five.
I won’t be happy unless Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu walks us out on the first day of the season and is honoured as the only player ever to feature in every tier from the Conference to the Premier League for the same club.
We’ll finish 17th and it’ll come right down to the wire.
Season previews for the Premier League, League One and League Two are all available HERE
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