OPINION: Crooks' latest swipe at Luton is ill-informed, uneducated and downright ludicrous

What’s that saying, if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all?

Well someone clearly forgot to tell a certain Garth Crooks that after his latest ill-advised, uneducated and quite simply astoundingly bad take on matters at Kenilworth Road.

The former Spurs winger had no noticeable beef with Luton during his playing days, no-one doubting his excellent and pioneering career when on the field, winning the FA Cup twice and UEFA Cup as well.

Off the field though, he now seems, for reasons known only to him, to have it in for Town, as not once, but twice, in what is fast becoming his fairly questionable role as a pundit, has decided to have a pop at the Hatters.

Just before the international break, in his ’expert’ column for the BBC website, in which he puts together a Team of the Week, no doubt from watching the highlights of the weekend’s action, Crooks decided to get personal with Luton.

Following the West Ham game, in which he included Hammers defender Kurt Zouma in his best XI, meaning Town must have been doing something right to get such a level of performance out of the centre half, he wrote about being unable to take the Hatters ‘seriously’ in the top flight, and that they would be ‘down by Christmas.’

Quite how or why he came to that conclusion remains a mystery, and that’s before getting into his dubious at best mathematical skills too in predicting relegation before the decorations have gone up.

Asked about his comments, Town chief Rob Edwards admitted they had not only ‘hurt’, but were ‘disrespectful’ as well, revealing Luton had extended an invitation to Crooks to head to the Brache and discover just what the Hatters are about.

Not surprisingly the club are yet to hear back.

That appeared to be that as probed for more headline quotes after the 1-0 defeat at Fulham on Saturday, Edwards quite rightly didn’t want to get drawn into a public slanging match, stating he had bigger fish to fry.

End of story you’d think?

No.

In his infinite wisdom, rather than discuss things face-to-face, Crooks decided to use his column once more, called the Crooks of the Matter, to give his response.

He started by offering up a reason behind his earlier comments, stating they were a ‘warning signal’ to what awaits the Hatters this term.

I’ve no doubt they were welcomed by owners 2020 who have only had 15 years or so’s experience of what it is like to run a football club from someone who, following his retirement from kicking a ball in 1990, has been watching matches from the relative comfort of a TV studio.

Eager to ratchet it up, Crooks then went on to mention his ‘problem with the current regime’ is that they have shown ‘no serious intentions’ of staying in the Premier League.

First things first.

Luton have had some regimes in the past that many could have had more than a problem with.

Think David Kohler, Kohler Domes, Formula One race tracks, almost putting the club out of business, now that was someone to have a legitimate problem with.

Those running things at Kenilworth Road now though?

The ones who have been in situ and seen Town go from the non-league to the Football league in under a decade?

All the time while keeping finances under control?

Who have plans in place for a new ground at Power Court which would take the club to the next level?

Problems? I think not.

Before we get on to the serious intentions side of things, Crooks opted to dig an even bigger hole by stating: “To survive in the toughest and most successful league in the world requires significant investment in player recruitment and infrastructure.”

You don’t say.

He carried on digging too: "I look at Kenilworth Road and Luton's summer signings and it's clear there has been only the bare minimum.”

Mmm, okay then.

In fact the only nice things that Crooks had to say about the Hatters was when mentioning the goalscoring exploits of a number of past players including Ricky Hill, Paul Walsh, Malcolm Macdonald and the Stein brothers, declaring David Pleat and Mick Harford deserve lifetime achievement awards.

That might all be well and good, but what about the 20-goals from Carlton Morris last season?

James Collins and Danny Hylton’s efforts too?

Or the Hatters’ stunning journey back from being a non-league side to rubbing shoulders with the big boys once more?

Nothing.

So let’s have a look at significant investment to begin with.

Clearly Crooks hasn’t been to the ground in recent times, or bothered to do even a modicum of research.

If so, he would have seen that Luton have spent around £13m of the £100m or so received for attaining top flight status on having to rebuild the entire Bobbers Stand to ensure Kenilworth Road is capable of hosting top flight football, all in the space of about 13 weeks.

There is an argument they have actually spent the most of all other 19 clubs on their ground this season, with only really Liverpool giving them a run for the money, as they redevelop the Anfield Road Stand.

So if that isn’t significant, I don’t know what is.

It’s not just the current infrastructure that Luton have looked at either, but the future as well.

With Power Court given the green light in January 2019, CEO Gary Sweet confirmed a significant chunk of Luton’s promotion money, thought to be around £25m, would be ring-fenced for financing said new ground.

A global pandemic had seen Town’s efforts to leave their 118-year old home hit by a number of delays, with spiralling costs one of the main hitches, but reaching the Premier League ended those in one fell swoop.

Again though, it cut into the budget quite dramatically of what Town could then use to spend on players this summer, not that Edwards or anyone at the club has complained once.

From the three teams going up, the Hatters are not even in the same ballpark as a Burnley or a Sheffield United, the pair demonstrating their financial muscle with the Clarets bringing in James Trafford for £19m and Cameron Archer joining the Blades for a reported £18.5m.

No, Luton have to do business another way, the Luton way.

And they haven’t been scrimping either, 12 new players joining, with the transfer record broken on more than one occasion, which I don’t know about you, but I’d say shows some pretty serious intentions.

Just twice in Luton’s 138-year history had they spent seven figures, before doing it quite possibly five or even six times in around a month, shelling out almost £17m in total, less than a Trafford or an Archer, on bolstering their squad.

It also included the addition of England midfielder Ross Barkley on a free transfer too, a player who was in England squads while Town were still traipsing around the Blue Square Bet Premier at places like Hyde and Gateshead.

So to call it in the bare minimum is quite simply a joke, and not a very funny one.

With Crooks’ experiences of running a football club non-existent, I’m not sure just what he wanted, or expected from the Hatters this year.

Go all out and overspend just to try and get another season in the top flight, which if things went wrong, could set them back years and saddle them with huge debts.

Or, load the squad with top end Championship players, so that if heaven forbid they did go down, not before the man with the beard visits mind you, they have a club who are well in the black, possess a squad more than capable of mounting a serious challenge of going straight back up, and have two more years of parachute payments bringing in a further £80m.

And let’s not forget, a brand new stadium which is now not just a speck on the horizon, but coming into eyesight with every passing day.

Yes, everyone connected with the Hatters will want to stay up and it’s clear to most they are doing absolutely everything they can to achieve that, and if they did it would be one of the best stories ever in football, even beating Manchester City’s Champions League victory from last season.

You only have to witness the away ends to see the supporters aren’t silly either, with spine-tingling ovations at the Amex, Stamford Bridge and Craven Cottage following defeats in which their players have given everything only to fall short.

Of course they want to win, and nothing would give them greater pleasure than a second season in the top tier of English football, but they are also realistic and quite rightly determined to enjoy being back at this level for the first time in over 30 years.

These are fans who have been to Guiseley, Matlock and Corby Town not so long ago in the FA Trophy remember.

So if I was the Luton hierarchy, I would tear up that invitation to Crooks for a visit, as it’s doubtful he would be welcome now anyway.

And for the players, just keep ignoring the outside noise in their continued, serious, intentions of staying up – the Luton way.