A fairytale of Luton: why the Hatters deserve to stay in the Premier League

As the Premier League season draws to a nail-biting close at both ends of the table, my hometown club of Luton Town FC is still in with a shout of surviving the drop back to the Championship. The club is one point from safety with four games to play. Staying in the Premier League is vital not just for LTFC but for the town itself.

It is safe to say that Luton doesn’t have the most positive reputation; a running joke is that most people visit Luton to fly right out of it from the international airport. My hometown all too often ranks highly when it comes to lists on the worst places to live in England – the perception of it being run-down, crime-ridden, and flowing with various kinds of extremism, is not an uncommon one. While well-known figures include the TV presenter and former winner of Strictly Come Dancing Stacey Dooley, there are also the likes of Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (the founder of the English Defence League) and Andrew Tate (the ‘Top G’ who has been charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania, allegations he denies).