Edwards not fussed by the numbers as Chelsea close in on spending £1bn since Boehly took over

Luton boss Rob Edwards isn’t fazed by the multi, multi-million pound side that the Hatters will be going up against when they take on the Premier League’s massive spenders in Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this evening.

Since American owner Todd Boehly came in just over a year ago, the Blues have forked out some staggering transfer fees on new signings, splashing out almost £1billion in total to bring in the likes of Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana and Mykhailo Mudryk.

The exorbitant prices have continued this term too under new boss Mauricio Pochettino, with around £180m spent in the last week or so, Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo joining for a British transfer record free of £115m, with Southampton’s Romeo Lavia arriving at a shade under £60m, plus Santos forward Deivid Washington joining for around £17m as well.

However, for Edwards, it wasn’t something he was getting preoccupied with before the contest which is being shown live on Sky Sports tonight, as he said: “Those numbers don’t play the game, it’s players, it’s human beings that play the game.

“I’ve got complete belief in our group.

"They’ve (Chelsea) still got to try and gel, I’m sure they won’t be fully in their rhythm yet.

"There’s been really good performances over the two games, they might not have got the results, I suppose a draw against Liverpool is not a bad result ever, but they’re still going to keep improving.

“I can’t think about it too much, we can only control what we do.

"I’m delighted with the backing we’ve had in the window, I know it’s tiny numbers compared to a lot of teams, but we do things our way, we look after ourselves.

"The Premier League has become a massive beast for years and years now, there’s been huge sums that have been going around.

"Just because we’re in it now, I don’t want to wade in and say it’s bad for the game.

"The Premier League is a brilliant watch, an amazing competition, we’re really lucky to be a part of it this year.

"So we’re going to enjoy it, but we’re going to try and be us, we’re not going to change.

“We are who we are, we're not going to be able to compete financially with anyone, but again, that doesn't matter as we’ve got brilliant people and really good players in the group, and we’ll continue to do it our way.

"I’ve got complete belief that we can compete with them.

"The numbers don’t matter, get over that white line, when the whistle goes it’s 11 people versus 11 people, let’s go and have a right good go.”

Luton themselves have spent big by their own standards this summer, breaking their transfer record on a number of occasions, as after spending over a million just twice in their 138-year history prior to the current transfer window, did so at least four times in the space of a few weeks with the additions of Mads Andersen, Tahith Chong, Thomas Kaminski and Ryan Giles.

Although it might be peanuts compared to the power Chelsea have in the market, or most clubs at this level, Edwards has been more than happy with the funds made available to him by 2020 to strengthen a squad that won the Championship play-off final last term.

He continued: “We said it after the play-off final, we’re not going to go wild, we’re going to stick to what we do.

"There’s money going here on Kenilworth Road, there’s money going to go on the new stadium, there is money going into the squad as well to try and keep us competitive, but we’re not going to go and spend 100 million pounds on a player.

"Maybe in 15, 20 years time, you never know, you look at where we were 10 years ago, who knows where we’re going to be in another 10 years time?

"But we’ll do it our way, so it’s a huge contrast in terms of the finances and the financial muscle they’ve got compared to us.

"But again I’ve got to stress it, football’s so random, it’s the most random team sport in the whole world.

“It throws up some surprises, so we’ll try and be a bit random at times, but completely respecting what we’re coming up against.

“It's a huge, huge challenge, but the belief is there.”

Despite the massive difference in the individual values of the players who take to the field in West London tonight, Edwards doesn’t that can be used as any sort of excuse when it comes to trying to win the physical battle throughout the 90-plus minutes.

Having seen what is now expected after the opening day 4-1 defeat at Brighton, he added: “The running side and the work-rate has got to be a given.

"It’s something we’ve really focused on the last couple of weeks as well, as we were really good at that last year, but the difference between the Championship and the Premier League is stark.

"The speed at which things happen, it’s going to be consistently an area of focus for us all the time.

"We want to try and win that running battle against every team we play.

"We’re going up against players that are genetically and technically amazing, and have been at the level for a number of years, so are used to this feeling as well.

"We want to make sure that we come out on top on some of those metrics as we’re not always going to have the ball.

"We might be giving a little bit away in certain areas technically at times, but you can always win the running, you can, so it’s an area that we’ll always try and focus on.

"We’ve got to learn and learn fast and we’ve got a group that have done that consistently over a number of years and stepped up.”