Luton Town boss Rob Edwards has promised that the club “won’t go wild” in the transfer market as they look forward to the challenge of trying to survive in the Premier League next season.
The Hatters will compete in arguably the world’s best league for the very first time after they beat Coventry City on penalties at Wembley on Saturday in a tense Championship play-off final.
The win will be worth more than £100 million to Luton, but speaking in the aftermath of Saturday’s final, Edwards insisted that the club will continue to live within their means.
“We’re not going to go wild now because we want to make sure that we are sustainable, and that’s important to us,” he said.
“We’re never going into those dark times that we’ve had in the recent past, so we’ve got to be sensible. We’ve got to plan really quickly and plan for what is going to be a hell of a challenge.”
Promotion will mean a busy period for chief executive Gary Sweet, who joked to ITV News Anglia in the lead-up to Saturday’s final that he would allow himself “six hours sleep” before getting straight back down to work again.
First on his lengthy list of priorities will be to start the process of rebuilding one of the stands at Kenilworth Road to bring the ageing stadium up to Premier League standard.
“The Premier League can expect a shoddy, old, stadium that will turn into something that they’ll be proud of, and a board with real principles,” he said.
“I think we can show to other teams that football can be more than just about pound notes. This just means everything to us as a football club. I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow morning and start work.”
For the players, competing in the Premier League will be a dream come true – not least striker Elijah Adebayo who was released by Fulham back in 2019.
He will now face his former club in the big time next season, and will also come up directly against the likes of Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Manchester City’s Rúben Dias.
“This group, this club, deserves to be in the Premier League,” said Adebayo.
“We stick together through thick and thin. For me, it’s the best group I’ve worked with. It’s just a phenomenal group.”
