Luton boss declares Premier League cash means Town can be one of the 'stronger teams' in the Championship

​Luton boss Rob Edwards believes his side can be considered one of the ‘stronger sides’ when they had back to the Championship next season after being unable to extend their stay in the Premier League beyond the current campaign.

The Hatters saw their relegation to the second tier all but confirmed on Saturday as they lost 3-1 to West Ham United, meaning they would need to beat Fulham this weekend and have a 12-goal swing over fourth bottom Nottingham Forest, who in turn have to lose at Burnley, to remain in the top flight. When Luton initially came up by getting past Coventry City in the play-off final last May, they had one of the smallest budgets in the division to work with, making their elevation to the highest level of English football a massive shock in itself.

Joining the big boys brought with it vast sums of wealth that the club could have only dreamed about previously though, pocketing around £100m, of which around £15m went on upgrading Kenilworth Road to be able to host Premier League matches and just over £20m was splashed out on transfer fees to bolster the squad, Ryan Giles at £5m believed to be the most expensive.

Luton also ringfenced a large chunk of the funds to go towards building a new stadium at Power Court, but despite going down, they are now due to receive a significant sum of approximately £40m in terms of parachute payments both next season and the one after, unless they immediately go back up again. Asked if a plan was already being drawn up to return to the big time as soon as possible, Edwards said: “I think knowing Gary (Sweet, CEO) he’ll want to get down to work very quickly, I don’t think there’s any other way.

"If we allow things to fester it will allow too much time to take place before really getting that plan together and by the way, he has to plan for all eventualities. My focus has solely been on trying to stay in the league, but there is a plan for both, because now we’ve been in the Premier League, we know what it gives you.

"We’ll be in a stronger place, a stronger position than last time we were in the Championship to attack it, there’s no doubt about that. I would say the last time, the brilliant work that had been going on for a long time, we got promoted with one of the smallest budgets. It was a huge gap, a chasm, between us and the Premier League, that won’t necessarily be the case now, we can be one of the stronger teams.”

Having spent a season in the top flight and finding it to be a place he feels comfortable managing in, then it’s quite clear there’s a burning desire within Edwards to have another crack at it, as he added: “It’s an amazing challenge, I’ve loved it and at times I think we’ve shown we’ve been able to compete with loads of teams, with everybody. I love this league, I love the challenge of it, I and we, the staff, the players, we feel comfortable at this level. We know it’s a huge challenge for us and difficult in every single game, but I think we’ve shown that we can do it, we can compete.

"The growth and the improvement, I take a lot of pride in that. In our performances, how the players have stepped up and some of our players have looked like Premier League players and I take a lot of heart from that. I’ve loved it and it fuels the fire to get back here. We’ve got another game, a final game at home that we will do our best in and want to go out on a high and show the best us, we owe that to our supporters, ourselves and the league.”