The most resilient club in world football - Luton Town will prove the doubters wrong next season

A psychological overview of how Luton Town will be approaching their first season in the Premier League

“Let’s keep humble, stay Luton, none of that Billy big bollocks sh*t - ok?!” Of course Gary Sweet aimed those comments at us, the fans. But how easy will it be to stay ‘Luton’ in the Premier League for the players who for the most part, won't have experienced anything like this amount of media attention and indeed scrutiny so far in their careers. For me, we are uniquely placed, to survive in this league on a Psychological level.

Luton’s squad have a combined 80 Premier League appearances, 58 of which have come from Marvelous Nakamba.

The vast majority of the squad have come from the lower leagues of the professional game, a route which has ensured that Luton’s identity as one of grounded determination with a point to prove shared amongst the players, staff and fans has undoubtedly contributed to where we find ourselves today. The question is, can we sustain that mentality next year?

Resilience is often a buzzword thrown into motivational speeches and team building tasks without much context or idea on how to achieve it. Resilience is built over time, there is no shortcut. Resilience is also built from adversity. For me, there is no club in the world that comes close to Luton’s resilience: The club, the players, the fans, and the town). John Still and 2020 built it, and it won't disappear just because we’ve been thumped 6-0 at the Etihad.

For many on the outside, the story of Luton's rise to the Premier League beggars belief. But for those of us who support the club, it has been an inevitability. Since our promotion from the Conference under Still, we have only ever been pushing upwards. While there will be many additions to the squad this year, there is still a core of players embody the resilience: Berry, Potts, Shea and of course Pelly will be vital, even if some will not see much game time.

Of course, the shared mental scarring that we all have from the dark days of John Gurney and David Pinkney means that we also possess the rarest trait of all: Unwavering trust in our owners. Regardless of our league position therefore, the Kenny will be rocking, Edward’s name will be sung and little old Luton will keep proving people wrong.