Rob Edwards reveals what advice former boss Nathan Jones gave him about the Luton job; The Hatters are 13th in the Championship, four points from the play-offs; Their game against Millwall on Sunday has been postponed due to a frozen pitch
Friday 16 December 2022 20:22, UK
Only 19 miles separates Luton Town and Watford, two historic rivals, but in the eyes of Rob Edwards there are some stark differences between the clubs.
Edwards was sacked by Watford in September having suffered just two defeats in 10 league games, the latest in a long line of short-term appointments - their eighth manager since 2020.
In June - soon after he was appointed having guided Forest Green to promotion to the third tier of English football for the first time - Watford's chief executive Scott Duxbury promised that they would stick by the Welshman 'come hell or high water'. But the reality was very different.
In contrast, Luton have been a picture of stability in recent times. Nathan Jones took charge of more than 300 games in two spells before leaving to join Southampton in the Premier League just before the World Cup break, giving Edwards the opportunity to step in and replace him at Kenilworth Road.
He is confident that his second experience of being a Championship manager will be very different to his first.
"I don't think we even had the opportunity to fail in 10 league games", Edwards said of his time at Watford in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports.
"We were a point outside the play-offs or whatever and starting to get players fit again but look, it's done and I'm comfortable with it. I'm fully focused at Luton Town now and if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here and I'm really really pleased that I am.
"My eyes were wide open. I knew that could happen, that's the nature of first team football. That could've happened at Forest Green, there's always an element of risk when you take a job from both sides - the club giving you the chance and obviously you going there, but because it was such a short period of time, it was hard to fail in that amount of time.
"I will have learned stuff and I've reflected. I'll be better for it, but without that, I wouldn't be here now. After a couple of weeks, I feel at home here.
"Of course it frustrates you because I didn't want to lose my job and felt that we could be successful there, but I think anyone that's a head coach or a manager feels they have to back themselves and they can be a success wherever they're at.
"But it happened and I dealt with it pretty quickly. It was during that international break, I won't go into the details but I didn't feel it coming. However, it did and that's football."
Edwards inherited a team that surprised many by reaching the Championship play-offs last season before losing to Huddersfield over two fiercely contested legs. Once again, they are aiming to be "in the shake up", in the words of their new manager.
He was linked with a number of vacancies after departing Vicarage Road, including Middlesbrough - who beat Luton with a stoppage-time winner in Edwards' first game in charge last weekend.
But the former centre-back was convinced Luton was the right opportunity to return to after initial conversations with chief executive Gary Sweet and club legend and head of recruitment Mick Harford.
Edwards said: "It fills me with a lot of confidence that they do, historically, give the managers a lot of time here.
"The conversations I've had with the football club, they want to try and help us as much as possible and help us build something moving forward and progress the club. It feels like there are similarities to Forest Green and that first one that we took where Mark Cooper had five years before me.
"That's why coming here was the right thing. What was important in the next one was me picking the club and the owners I'm going to be working for and with as much as them picking me.
"They put people first. Of course we're all competitive, we want to win football matches and build and everyone wants to get to the Premier League, but there's a realism as well. There's a human side to them and I really like that.
"We spoke about a lot of things, families and home not just stuff on the grass and football, and I liked that.
"They have done great, they achieved brilliant things last season and they've continued that this season as well. I think it would be stupid to come in and say 'forget that, we're going to go this way now'. We do loads of things well, let's continue to do that and get better at it.
"Then let's build and evolve and get better and grow as we move on. Nathan would've wanted to do that as well if he'd have stayed here; improve and keep getting better every week, every month and every game."
Edwards spoke to his predecessor Jones soon after being appointed - a text from Edwards was responded to almost instantly with a phone call and a stellar reference about the club he had arrived at.
Now the challenge for Edwards is to be embraced by the supporters in the same way that both Jones and Harford - a popular and successful interim - have been in recent years.
"I'm never going to compete with Mick, I can't compete with Mick," Edwards joked.
"I can only be me. I'm not Nathan, I'm certainly not Mick. We'll try our best for this football club and that's what we've said when we met any supporters. We can never guarantee a win, I wish you could, but you can guarantee we'll give absolutely everything and the players will leave it all out there.
"Our fans are really intelligent and they get that. They want that fighting spirit, they want us to give everything for the badge and if we do that, they will appreciate it.
"He [Nathan] spoke in such glowing terms about the football club - the players, the staff, the people, the supporters and it was really refreshing and nice for me to hear those things really.
"If I wanted advice, I know he'd happily give that, but it was more a conversation about the people and the football club. He was so positive about it."
