Luton Town Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Rob Edwards as its new first team manager on a minimum three-and-a-half-year contract.
The 39-year-old arrives at Kenilworth Road as one of the EFL’s most coveted young coaches after winning the Sky Bet League Two title with Forest Green Rovers last season.
Widely respected for developing young players as Under-18s and then 23s coach at Wolverhampton Wanderers, who he led to promotion to Premier League 2’s top-flight, Edwards had left his dual role as England U16 head coach and U20 assistant to join Rovers in June 2021.
He quickly earned a reputation for playing front-footed, pressing, aggressive football, with his side the second highest scorers in the division, best counter-attacking statistics, best expected goals data, as well as keeping 19 clean sheets while winning 24 of his 53 matches in charge.
That success earned the former Wales international the League Two Manager of the Year award, as well as a summer move to the Championship, where he spent most of his playing career with the likes of Blackpool, Norwich City and Wolves.
Edwards’ stay at Watford proved harshly short-lived, but with his team only a point outside the play-off positions after ten matches, his name remained as highly regarded as previously, and therefore has been linked to other vacancies in the second tier.
Less than two months on, he returns to football in charge of a Hatters side that sits in exactly the same position, just one point outside the top six, and primed for another promotion push when league action resumes after the World Cup break.
On his appointment, Edwards said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be here. It’s a really exciting opportunity to manage this great football club and I can’t wait to get started.
“From the outside, looking in at Luton Town, you see such a well-run football club, a club that’s growing, moving forward and competing at the right end of the Championship. It’s a club that did fantastically well last season and is doing so well now. When the opportunity opened up, straight away, you see there is a terrific group of players there and a club that’s only looking in one direction.
“Then, I come in and start meeting everyone, and you get such a warm feeling. You can see it’s a club that puts its people and supporters first. I feel a lot of positivity around the place, and I’m really thankful to be given the chance to be part of it.
“I want to thank Gary, Mick, the interview team and the board for giving me this opportunity, because it’s not one that I take for granted. Because of where I’ve just come from, it has probably added a difficulty to the decision for them, but I’m really pleased that they see past that and deem me as the right person to play a part in the next chapter of this club going forward.
“I can’t wait to proudly step out in this stadium that’s known for its great atmosphere, as Luton Town manager, in front of the loyal supporters and grow to earn their trust. I know, as a visitor, how difficult they make it for the opposition – and long may that continue – and I’m really eager to make a strong connection with them right from the start.
“I also have to recognise the brilliant work done by Nathan, Chris and Alan – along with every other member of staff. They’ve left the football club in brilliant place and it’s down to us now to try and keep building on that brilliant work.”
Town CEO Gary Sweet said: “On behalf of the board, our recruitment team, and the whole Club, we are more than delighted to be able to secure the long-term commitment of Rob Edwards.
“We have conducted a very thorough recruitment process, the planning for which is always available for us to use, but really kicked into gear at the start of last week going into painstaking detail to ensure we appoint the right man. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the board and the recruitment team for their time, hard work and intelligence in arriving at a unanimous decision.
“We warmly welcome Rob to Kenilworth Road and while as a band of fans ourselves, we fully understand the concerns some supporters may have with his previous Club, but the one action Watford did that impressed us in recent times was their appointment of Rob!
“From our lengthy conversations with him, he immediately bought into our values as a club, we had deep discussions about our culture, our opportunities and our threats, and he fully understands where we have come from to get to this point now.
“Let’s be honest, jokingly, if we avoided everyone with a connection to our adversaries our choice would be somewhat more limited and we can’t ignore the joint movement of some players over the years, and indeed this season.
“We’re confident that with such a limited association with them, Rob will very quickly feel much more a member of our tight Club here at Kenilworth Road.
“We had unprecedented interest in the post and would like to thank the other candidates on a very high-quality list, with a particular warm thank you to one.
“The process was also about recruiting a tight team of excellent coaches, not just one leader, and whilst we’re not in a position to be announced at this stage, we are more than happy with the quality of Rob’s associated staff when they join us over the next few days.
“We urge everyone to back our decision to appoint Rob, back him, his staff and of course, back their team out on the pitch as we kick-off an exciting new era.”
