Two consecutive declines in two years! Luton, who was still playing in the Premier League last year, was reduced to the League One

No top stars, no famous coaches, no luxurious courts, a small British town has been lying on firewood and tasting gall for 14 years, and has written a magical football fairy tale. Luton fans once proudly told the world that they have fulfilled their Premier League dream, but the fairy tale of the small town Premier League is likely to be completely over.

Just a month after Luton announced that their new stadium will be launched in 2028, the team lost the final round of the Championship this season and was relegated for the second consecutive year. They were still playing in the Premier League last season and had to face the bitter result of playing in the League One next season, and the town fans woke up from their dreams.

Luton Town is an hour's drive from London and has a population of about 200,000. Because it has always been famous for the hat-making industry, not only the team's mascots wear a hat, but the team's nickname is "Hat Maker". The only result Luton can achieve is that they defeated Arsenal in the 1980s and won the only British League Cup in team history besides the low-level league championship.

They were relegated from the League One year before the founding of the Premier League. Like many small teams, Luton has no capital to make mistakes. If you want to upgrade, you have to buy people. Don’t have the money to buy? Then take a loan. As the saying goes, "Everyone who is a little motivated is on the credit list." Luton, who is unwilling to live in the second division, always wants to make it to the Premier League, but the price is that the team's loans are getting more and more, but the team's level is getting lower and lower.

The team was deducted 10 points for financial problems in the 08-09 season, and was deducted 30 points for the same reason again. In the end, the English League of China was demoted to the fifth-level amateur level. Because the team's debt had reached one million pounds at that time. Although this was just a substitute for the giants, it seemed that Luton, whose main team had only more than 10,000 people at home and whose weekly salary was only 1,000 pounds, seemed almost impossible to turn around.

Who saved this team that could be disbanded at any time? It was in 2008 when the first time the die-hard fans were deducted points, and several small owners of local Luton factories joined forces with fan leaders to become a new club operation company. The new management team is each a die-hard fan. Relying on the revenue of tickets and jerseys per season and the sponsorship fees of "Easy Jet" headquartered in Luton, the team struggled to maintain it while trying to break a piece of money into half for operation and debt repayment. The method of generating income for the team is very simple. It is always free of sign-ups, and sells if you can. From the main force to youth training, you can sell it immediately after you give it money, and signing players can only be free of sign-ups to get bargains. In this way, the main players sold out and the youth training sold out, but after four years, Luton finally paid off all his debts and they will write a good story in the history of English football.

In the 13-14 season, Luton, who had been in the amateur league for five years, finally upgraded as a champion, promoted to the League One in 17-18, and won the League One in 18-19 season, and rushed to the League One championship. In the 22-23 season, Luton, under the unfavorable situation of the team's No. 1 star Welsh international Locke, fell into a coma shortly after the opening, the team withstood the pressure and defeated Coventry 6-5 in the penalty shootout, winning the "100 million pound battle".

First, he spent four years paying off his debts, and then ten years to be promoted from the British League to the Premier League. The most expensive signing for the team in these fourteen years was to sign English striker Morris for 2 million euros, which is tantamount to a football fairy tale in the fiercely competitive British arena. The team's midfielder Mpanzu joined Luton in 2013 and became the first stranger in British league history to follow the same team, from the fifth-level league to the Premier League.

In the Premier League last season, Kenilworth Road, a community stadium in Luton, which could only sit 10,000 people, became popular together. Countless fans went to check in with great enthusiasm. They walked through the iron ladder and houses, walked through the backyard of local residents, and arrived at the stadium that could only accommodate 10,300 people. The Premier League teams in the residential community are undoubtedly the most unique scenery in football culture, but Luton's lineup is too thin.

Although the team spent more than 25 million euros to introduce many powerful players, Luton also played exciting games such as defeating Newcastle and drawing with Liverpool. But as Lockyer fell again due to heart problems and the gap in hard strength, Luton's Premier League experience card still expired. In the English Championship this season, with the retirement of the defensive back-end Locke, core players such as Ross Barkley left the team, and the new player was awkward, Luton was not careful and relegated again. Obviously, the trouble was really big this time.

Luton's previous two teams were relegated from the Premier League in a row. It took Wolves from 2012 to 2013 to return to the Premier League, while Sunderland from 2017 to 2018 had been in the second and third divisions for seven years. In fact, today's Premier League civilian teams no longer have the chance to play on the card table. After the upgrade in the summer of 222, Nottingham Forest has signed up continuously regardless of cost, but it has only struggled to relegate for two consecutive seasons. Last season, Luton Sherlock and Burnley were all relegated, and this season, the three Premier League teams, Yizhen Saints and Fox City were all relegated, and the two consecutive years of promotions were all relegated.

The early relegation confirmed a cruel fact. With the rise of the revenue of Premier League teams, the gap in the strength gap between the English first and second division teams can no longer be filled with tens of millions of euros. Even the relegation team in the Premier League can steadily put 150 million euros of TV broadcast dividends into their pockets every year.

How many English champions are there? It is only about 13-17 million euros, a tenfold difference. Premier League teams can play steadily and buy Xiao Yaohuo Lottery and sign to fight. On the contrary, most relegated teams need to sell people immediately to relieve financial pressure, and the dilemma of a sharp drop in strength will naturally occur after the core players leave.

Take Sunderland as an example. The poverty and weakness of the League One team have become increasingly far away from the Premier League. They did not make it difficult to enter the Championship and upgrade the play-offs this season.. After Luton was relegated again, many of the main players of the Premier League level in the team were willing to accompany the team to rush up, which became a problem for whether the "hatmaker" can quickly return to the Championship.

If there is no surprise, the new stadium in Luton will be completed in 2028 and will have 25,000 seats inside. But in which league will Luton be in at that time?