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Set the tone: Luton dreams of historic promotion to the Premier League - Walla! sport

2023-05-26T13:09:45.866Z

Highlights: Luton are one win away from the Premier League after beating Sunderland 2-0. Luton's home ground, Kenilworth Road, was built in the same year as Fulham's Craven Cottage in 1905. The distance between the two stadiums is huge. The club's budget is one of the most modest in the league, its squad is considered quite anonymous and the infrastructure that the club has created over the years is consideredquite outdated. The phrase 'Luton, Premier League' is a phrase that has never been said in a single connotation.


One of England's worst cities, with a team that has all but disappeared from the map and a pitch that "redefines the crowding experience", is suddenly one win away from the Premier League


Recap: Luton FC vs Sunderland 0:2 (Sport1)

In recent years, we have mainly seen 'yo-yo' clubs, a term describing teams that rise and fall from the Premier League to the Premier League regularly, repeat the scenario of promotion to the top division or alternatively collapse again to the Championship. Watford and Norwich are clear examples of clubs whose professional inconsistency leads to complete disconnection from their crowds, empty stands and an obvious sense of frustration among their fans who are already satisfied with the negative swing led by team owners. Every promotion is seen as just another goal achieved and any drop back into the Premier League is seen as part of the policy set by the club's chiefs, who ultimately know that the 'golden parachute' awarded to them from broadcast rights money for their first season outside the Premier League will likely help them continue to grow the club's bottom line. So the fact that Luton Town is just one game away from a place it has never visited and with a status completely foreign to it – a Premier League team – adds a huge dimension of excitement that has not been remembered in the homeland of football for many years.

Luton already experienced tremendous professional success last year when they finished sixth last season and were eliminated in the play-off semi-finals by Huddersfield and despite the natural desire to take a step forward professionally and try to qualify for the Premier League this year, they have not emerged as one of the favourites for promotion before the start of the current season. Its budget is one of the most modest in the league, its squad is considered quite anonymous and the infrastructure that the club has created over the years is considered quite outdated. Most Championship pundits did not predict much success, but the team made one of its main drawbacks – its home stadium – its main advantage. Luton Town's home, Kenilworth Road, was built in the same year as Fulham's Craven Cottage in 1905, but the distance between the two stadiums is huge. While Fulham – located in one of the richest and most luxurious residential areas in Britain – Luton is considered a fairly complex town with a high crime rate. Some argue that its home ground is a direct result of the town itself – neglected and dilapidated, but it is the physical difficulty that Luton faced that has actually become its main advantage in the 2023/2022 season.

How can you even host Premier League matches here? Kenilworth Road (Photo by Getty Images, Marc Atkin)

Kenilworth Road is objectively defined as a 'non-league' stadium, worthy of hosting semi-professional league matches at best, and an outdated stadium that should have been demolished at worst. The entrance of away fans to the famous Oak Road End involves passing through the houses of neighbors near the stadium while walking on their home grass and the main passage to the main stand is so low in some places that you must lower your head significantly to avoid hitting the wooden chairs that adorn the tribune. The press stand is so intimate and tight that in last season's cup match against Chelsea, some of the media's shoes were inches from the head of Blues manager Thomas Tuchel, who twice turned towards reporters during the game and humorously demanded that they turn down the volume of their mobile devices because he could hear every word. Luton Town has already begun intensive construction of the new stadium that will hold more than 25,000 spectators, but even if it is completed properly and meets the league's strict standards, it will not be ready until early 2024 (at the earliest), prompting a wave of criticism of whether – if it does qualify for the Premier League – Luton deserves to host its home games at Kenilworth Road.

Tonight (18.45pm, Sport1) Luton will face their biggest test in decades when they take to the pitch at glittering Wembley in a direct clash against Coventry City for the final ticket to the Premier League. The phrase 'Luton Town, Premier League' is a phrase that has never been said in a single connotation, due to the fact that the team was dropped from the top division in the last season until the establishment of the Premier League and since then promotion back to the main stage has been seen as an unattainable fantasy for local Hatters fans. For many years, the townspeople tended to downplay being a local area that was always associated with one of the worst places to live in England, but on the main stage today at the National Stadium, the local Cinderella story can take a powerful turn.

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Touching a dream. Tom Lockyer (Photo: Reuters)

The terms 'football club and community' used to be naturally intertwined, but given the enormous financial resources injected into professional clubs today, most attempts by teams to create an honest and genuine connection with the people of their place are often seen as an attempt for public relations purposes and without any real deep intention. In Luton, unequivocally, the reality is completely different. At the end of the 2009–2008 season, when Luton Town dropped out of the professional Football League pyramid to the fifth division, the fear of professional vertigo and total collapse was alive and well. In a survey conducted by the local media with the town's residents at the end of the relegation season, nearly fifty percent of them answered that they are convinced that their quality of life will deteriorate significantly if their local football team ceases operations. In another survey conducted a few weeks later, nearly seventy percent of Luton residents admitted that they were willing for the local council to increase property taxes if it led to increased municipal assistance to the local club and ensured that it would not break up.

In the 1987 annual issue of Football Stadium Magazine UK, Kenilworth Road was defined as 'a ground that redefines the crowding experience. You didn't really experience or internalize what crowded football experience meant until you visited Kenilworth Road, it said. Over 35 years have passed since the exact definition of Luton Town's home and while the reality of English football has changed completely in a way that defines the viewing experience of fans, the connection between Luton Town, its stadium and its fan base is stronger than ever. They were there, in the gloomy days when the fear for the team's existence was palpable and daily, traveling to anonymous destinations and away games light years away from the glory of the attractive Premier League. Luton Town is just a stone's throw from the richness, prestige and fascinating intensity that accompanies any Premier League team. The thought that World Class players in the form of Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford might be running on the pitch at Kenilworth Road in less than three months may become a reality for the club's fans, who will try tonight at the National Stadium to provide the positive tailwind needed by Rob Edwards' players to turn the fantasy into a tangible experience.

  • sport
  • World Football
  • English League

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Source: walla

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