Luton's focus on survival scrap before stadium move

"We've been a fantastic football story for the Premier League. No-one can ever take it away from us, but we are never going to survive in the Premier League at Kenilworth Road. It's as simple as that."

Amid the diggers and cranes and mounds of dirt, Luton Town's CEO Gary Sweet points to a crudely painted red stick. It marks the spot where, in three years' time, the centre circle will be in Luton's new stadium Power Court, slap bang in the centre of a town experiencing the long-awaited shoots of gentrification.

What started as a drunken conversation with architects turned into an innovative concept for floodlights called The Halo; a circle of light atop the stands, doubling up as a symbolic boater for the new home of the Hatters. There will be 25,000 fans inside to watch the first ball be kicked in 2028-29. But before any of this, there's the small matter of survival.

Automatic promotion back to the Premier League was all the talk last August. But Luton are now languishing in 21st, one point above Hull, with the third-worst goal difference of any Championship club.

Rob Edwards, the manager who got them promoted, was sacked in January as he battled terrible form. But Kevin Harper, from the Luton Town Supporters' Trust, thinks the board acted too late in sacking Edwards and replacing him with Matt Bloomfield.

"If we go down, I think the big decision was that Rob wasn't sacked after the Middlesbrough away game [a 5-1 defeat in November]," says Harper. "You've got to think there'd been more points on the board if Matt [Bloomfield] had come a bit earlier."

Bloomfield has steadied the ship. After three wins on the spin, another victory, away at West Brom in the last game of the season on Saturday, will save them. But for Harper, those halcyon days of the play-off final victory at Wembley feel like a distant memory.

"I think we got promoted too soon and maybe, by not being completely prepared for the Premier League from the get go, we've probably not been prepared for the drop out of it," Harper adds.

"The worst thing would be the shame, the embarrassment, of relegation in successive seasons."

On that point, Sweet shakes his head: "I would never feel embarrassed being involved with this football club. The times we've been to Braintree and losing games at home to Hyde - I wouldn't have even called that an embarrassment. I've always been proud to be associated with this club and I always will."

The CEO was part of the consortium that rescued the Hatters from financial ruin in 2008, after a 30-point deduction imposed on them by the FA. Mick Harford was the manager then. Younger fans won't have experienced what the club legend describes as "the dark days".

Sweet adds: "There's trepidation but I believe those bad times have stood us in good stead. It's a bit of realism. It was very, very tough in those times. I've been connected with the football club for 40 years now, so I've seen lots of ups and downs.

"It's just an amazing club. It gets in your blood and it gets under your skin."

That the club battled its way from non-league to the Premier League at a ground that has so often been the butt of jokes is even more of an achievement.

"There were quite a few times at Kenilworth Road last season where we were actually sniggering saying, 'isn't this funny, with Pep Guardiola sitting in the dugout across the way'," says Sweet.

"But actually, quite a lot of time we were thinking 'I wish we were at Power Court right now'. I genuinely think it could have been that small margin that could have enabled us to get another six months to survive."

So where has it all gone wrong?

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire says Luton have been financially prudent after banking an extra £114m in 2023-24, mainly from the broadcasting deal, and have two years of parachute payments worth an extra £80m.

They haven't overspent, far from it. Of the 13 players signed this season, many have been loans and free transfers. But fans argue cheaper players can be injury prone, exemplified by last summer's signing from Brentford, midfielder Shandon Baptiste, who's started just seven matches all season.

"If you look back in the history books at clubs that get relegated from the Premier League back down into the Championship, the first time is always a challenge. The most important thing is we learn from that," says Sweet.

"If you look at the various attributes you look for, we're never going to be able to afford the players with every single one. Some of those risks pay off, some of those gambles don't."

It might just have paid off with Baptiste - he scored a 90th-minute winner last weekend to put survival in the club's hands. The last club to experience back-to-back relegation was Sunderland in 2018. In three years' time Luton Town might have its halo, but the CEO is confident that on Saturday, they won't need a guardian angel.

"I'm amazingly calm. I think you create your own luck, you create your own benefits in life. I do think we've got it in us to survive."