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Luton ended last season with a relegation but they also came out of it with a boosted bank balance, a determination to return to the Premier League and with Rob Edwards tied to a new four-year contract. On the eve of the new campaign bookmakers made them third-favourites for promotion while Opta got its supercomputer to simulate the season 10,000 times and concluded they were most likely to finish fifth.
“Last year there was a great buzz around the place, but we were going into the unknown,” Edwards said. “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. 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.”
He did not like much about what followed. Luton played title second-favourites Burnley at home in their opening game, lost 4-1 and never recovered. It took until mid-September for them to record their first win, beating Millwall 1-0 away. “The monkey’s off our back now,” Edwards said optimistically.
Ten games and more than four months later Luton have not picked up another point away from home and they go into Saturday’s home fixture against Preston in 20th place, two points above the bottom three, with the division’s second-worst goal difference and a new manager.
Edwards left last week after four successive defeats and five in six games. “It’s another game sitting here saying the same sort of things,” he said after the last of them, a 2-1 loss at QPR. “It just seems the footballing gods are against us.”
Inevitably, it was not so simple. “The games I saw there wasn’t ever a plan B,” says Leon Barnett, the youth-team graduate and former centre-back who commentates for BBC Three Counties. “It was always the same plan, the same formation, the same players. Maybe he needed to freshen the team up, to keep the players on their toes.”
“There’s a multitude of things, it’s not just one,” says Kevin Harper of the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust. “The obvious one is Ross Barkley was so central to everything we did last season and you just can’t replace him. He’s left a massive hole, probably bigger than what anyone saw coming.
“A few players got blinded by the light a bit in the Premier League. One or two worked so hard to get there and then not being there any more was tough to take. The ones that came in last season weren’t ready for the Championship and maybe thought it would be a piece of cake. Injuries haven’t helped. We’ve just lost our way a little bit throughout.”
The Premier League cash bonanza means Luton’s planned new stadium at Power Court has been upgraded to be, in the words of the chief executive, Gary Sweet, “bigger, better, bolder”, but with money diverted to the construction project none of those adjectives would be used on the club’s transfer dealings. Of the 11 players with the most Premier League minutes last season seven remain, but a lot of quality has been lost.
“When the season started a lot of people thought we’d bounce straight back up,” says Barnett. “I thought we’d do a lot better than what we’ve been doing. But I think they’d prepared for relegation and decided the most important thing was funding for the stadium. So there were the plans the fans had and the plans the club had.
“It was always going to be hard. There are massive teams in the Championship, they’re all fighting for the same thing and with a small budget Luton haven’t been able to compete.”
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Edwards has been replaced with another young manager in Matt Bloomfield, who had impressed in taking Wycombe to second in League One. “We’re not looking to rip anything up, but we’re certainly trying to bring in a freshness and energy,” he said. “I see it as a very good squad which has had a bit of a tough time.”
Bloomfield inherits a decent squad and freshly diminished expectations. “At the start of the season if you’d asked what would be an acceptable position as a baseline requirement, I’d have said probably sixth to 10th,” says Harper. “We have to recognise we’re now in a relegation battle. But he looks driven, he’s young, he’s hungry, he’s going to simplify things and that’s the best thing you can do when your team’s in a rut.
“We’ve got enough in the squad that a fresh voice, someone with a little bit of confidence who’s used to winning – and not many people here are – can make a difference.”
The setbacks of the past year came after a rocket-fuelled run of four promotions in 10 seasons and so long as they avoid catastrophe in the next four months it will not be long until Luton are ready to dream big again. “This season’s a write-off, but we’ve got more than enough to stay up and next season we can give it a right good go,” says Barnett.
“Matt and his staff will try to steady the ship, but the squad is good enough to fight for a playoff place and, who knows, next year we can maybe get promoted.”
