Hatters boss reveals he has 'reached out' to ex-Spurs winger Garth Crooks after BBC pundit's 'disrespectful' comments about Luton

Luton boss Rob Edwards revealed he has ‘reached out’ to former Spurs and England winger Garth Crooks after the BBC pundits ‘disrespectful’ comments about the Hatters recently.

Following Town’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham United prior to the international break, the 65-year-old, writing in his online column, stated he couldn’t take Luton ‘seriously’ in the Premier League this term and went on to declare they would be relegated by Christmas, despite that being mathematically impossible.

It saw him labelled a ‘football snob’ by Town’s supporters, and in his first chance to respond to those statements, Edwards declared he had been ‘hurt’ after reading them and was hoping the FA Cup and UEFA Cup winner would pay a visit at the Brache in the near future to see just what the club are trying to achieve this term.

He said: “I think after three games it is disrespectful.

"It does hurt you when you hear comments like that, I did hear it, I’m not on social media, but people end up telling you about it.

"It’s hard to shy away from it, at this level in the Premier League now you’re there to be shot at, people are going to have opinions.

"I suppose that’s what he’s paid to do, but I do think it was a disrespectful comment.

"We have reached out to Mr Crooks, if he wants to come in and we can show him a little bit about what we do, show our plan and why maybe we’re not a team just to be laughed at or not taken seriously.

"But in the end, our job is to try and get results and put in good performances to change people’s minds.

"I don’t take it too personally at all as I said before, when you get promoted through the play-offs, you’re normally favourites to go down.

"When you do it in our way as well, being maybe the smallest club to have done it, then people are going to think that, so it’s no problem, it’s down to us to prove people wrong.”

Asked if there had been a response from Crooks to the invite, Edwards continued: “Not yet.

“We’re open here and we want to be really open with everyone.

"But if he doesn’t want to come, it’s down to us then to change people’s minds with our performances and results and that’s it.”

On whether he was the kind of manager who will use such a piece as extra motivation for his squad in their battle to stay in the top flight by pinning it on the dressing room wall, he added: “No, I think the players will see it, there’ll be something on a daily basis.

"Like I said, I don’t take it personally as we’ve done an amazing thing by getting promoted, we have.

"But at this level, in the biggest league in the world, there’s going to be a million people chucking comments out and opinions and that’s fine.

"That’s just the nature of it, so we’ve just got to brush it off and get on with it, I don’t worry about it too much.”